By GARY DOVE
for the Daily Telegraph
WELCH — Mount View put forth a solid performance Friday evening in a 54-34 victory over the James Monroe Mavericks on the Ergie Smith Court, at the Castle.
Offensively, Coach Gary Brown’s Golden Knights outshot their guests 42 percent to 28 percent from the field, while outrebounding the Mavs 40-18.
Defensively, an in-your-face man-to-man alignment limited open looks by the normally sharpshooting Mavericks, with that 28 percent accuracy being the result.
The initial six-plus minutes of the opening quarter was a back-and-forth game, featuring five lead changes before the View scored six of the last nine points of the quarter to hold a lead it would not relinquish.
JM junior Dominic Lewis gave his club a quick 3-0 lead with a trey from the right wing only 33 seconds into the game.
Mount View senior Kenneth Brown, who claimed game scoring honors with 15 points, including six in the inaugural frame, made a pair of foul tries, followed by a deuce on a De’Moni Edwards assist to push the Knights into a 4-3 advantage.
Alternating goals by Lewis on a coast-to-coast layup and Edwards following a steal highlighted the second and third lead changes.
Junior Clay Havens’ 15 foot jumper from the front see-sawed the Mavs into a 7-6 lead, their final advantage of the contest, with 2:12 showing in the first stanza.
Brown canned the front end of a two shot visit to the charity stripe 18 seconds later, but missed the second. However James Monroe was whistled for being in the lane too soon on that second attempt, and Brown made the most of a do-over, staking the Knights to the lead for keeps.
Half a minute later, Edwards bombed a trifecta from the left wing, following a Maverick turnover and the Knights were off and running, leading 12-10 after one.
The second eight minutes proved to be the difference in the game, as Mount View outscored JM 18-3 in the frame, with senior Caleb Spencer’s three from the right wing at the 6:53 mark being the only points of the chapter for the visitors.
Assessed Maverick head coach Johnathan McPherson, “It was pretty even in the first quarter, at 12-10. I thought we were trying to figure them (Knights) out. And then that second quarter, that’s the difference in this ball game in the second quarter…That was definitely the difference maker in this ball game…You’ve just got to play four quarters.”
The first half of the third was relatively even before Mount View scored nine unanswered points to open a 47-19 advantage with a little more than a minute showing in the third.
Spanning the final two periods, the Mavs made a 13 point run to cut the deficit to 47-32 before the Knights closed out the 20 point win.
Mount View head coach Brown spoke first of his team’s defense, “We knew they (Mavericks) can shoot. We had to decide whether to switch everything (in the man-to-man) and we decided to do that…All in all, I thought we did a job defensively.”
Of his team’s offense, Brown continued, “We shot the ball a little bit better tonight, and we were able to get the ball inside. We knew we were bigger than they are, so we wanted to take it inside.”
Brown led a trio of twin digit scorers for Mount View with 15, followed by Edwards and junior Jaquane Imes, who contributed 10 apiece. Junior Ellis Bryson finished with 9 points.
Spencer’s 11 points were tops for James Monroe, while Lewis finished with 10.
The Knights dominated the glass, outrebounding their guests 40-18. Bryson led the way with 11, while Imes and Brown snared 7 each.
The loss was only the second in eight games for the Mavericks, who host PikeView next Thursday.
Mount View improves to 2-6, having dropped four of those six losses by a combined eleven points, and will remain home to entertain Independence Tuesday evening.

At The Ergie Smith Court
JAMES MONROE
Caleb Spencer 4 1-2 11, Lance Wilson 1 1-2 3, Dakota Copenhaver 1 2-2 4, Landon Shires 0 1-2 1, Dominic Lewis 3 3-4 10, Clay Havens 2 0-0 4, Dylan McMahon 0 1-2 1. Totals 11 9-14 34.
MOUNT VIEW
Sidney George 3 1-2 7, De’Moni Edwards 4 1-2 10, Kenneth Brown 4 6-10 15, Jaquane Imes 4 2-4 10, Ellis Bryson 4 1-2 9, Joseph Hayes 1 1-2 3. Totals 20 12-22 54.
James Monroe (6-2).............10 3 10 11 — 34
Mount View (2-6)...............12 18 17 7 — 54
3-point goals — JM 3 (Spencer 2, Lewis 1), MV 2 (Edwards 1, Brown 1). Fouled out — None. Technical foul — JM, Shires. JV game — Mount View won 66-50.