New offense makes Rapids hard to guard

When he returned to Chesterfield County and took over as coach of James River’s boys varsity basketball team, Tracy Hamner initially was hesitant to implement the offensive system he learned from his former boss.

Hamner had no doubt that the fundamentals were solid. John Beilein had built consistently successful college programs at Richmond, West Virginia and Michigan by recruiting players that fit his version of the increasingly popular “Princeton offense.”

Given limitations on practice time, Hamner wasn’t sure he’d be able to properly teach the complex system – which emphasizes constant motion, screening and passing – to a bunch of high school kids.

But after trying out a couple different schemes with varying levels of success, Hamner realized last season that, win or lose, he had to be true to himself.

“I said, ‘This is who I am. I have to try it,’” he recalled last week.

Hamner is quick to point out that James River utilizes only a small portion of Beilein’s voluminous playbook. Any more than that, he knew, risked “paralysis by analysis” that would’ve robbed his players of their natural athleticism by forcing them to over-think the game.

As the Rapids have shown so far this season, when run properly, the system is incredibly difficult to defend. They put on a clinic early in their Dominion District showdown with Manchester last Wednesday, building a 16-point lead before withstanding the Lancers’ furious fourth-quarter charge for a 53-46 victory.

“It’s not an easy system to learn. That’s a credit to the kids because they’re so smart,” Hamner said after James River improved to 9-2 overall and 6-1 in the district. “Now they’re starting to see what the offense is supposed to look like.”

Led by versatile forwards Tim Daly and Sam Albus, James River countered Manchester’s aggressive man-to-man defense by spreading the floor and utilizing both screens and sharp cuts to open driving lanes.

“We knew they liked to pressure the ball, so we were going to have to back-cut and go to the basket,” Albus said.

Daly got to the rim consistently and scored 13 of his game-high 19 points in the first half. His free throw gave James River its biggest lead (38-22) with less than four minutes left in the third quarter.

“Even though we were up early, we knew they were going to make a run,” Daly said.

Manchester trailed 39-27 when it finally began to find its touch from the perimeter. Josh Bailey buried a pair of long jumpers, and after the Lancers’ full-court press forced Hamner to burn a timeout with 6:53 left in the game, Breon Kellam’s 3-pointer brought the visitors within 41-35.

“They play so hard and they’re so talented,” Hamner said of the Lancers, who make up for a lack of size (Devin Robinson and Austin Williams are the only players taller than 6-2 on the roster) with quickness and athleticism. “They can just keep throwing athletes at you, so they’re never out of the game.

“You have to play the full 32 minutes because they’re never going to quit.”

Despite forcing James River into four turnovers during one particularly frenetic back-and-forth sequence, Manchester got no closer than six points the rest of the way.

Better known for his exploits with James River’s two-time state champion volleyball squad, Albus came up huge late in the fourth quarter. He buried a 3-pointer that pushed the Rapids’ lead back into double digits (46-35) with 4:17 left and added another basket before finishing off an 11-point effort with a thunderous one-handed dunk.

Kellam, a lightning-quick senior guard, went 6 for 6 at the free-throw line and scored nine of his team-high 16 points in the final period. Robinson added 13 points and Williams finished with 11despite finding his touches limited by James River’s sagging zone defense.

But while the Rapids made only 13 of 26 free throws overall, Reggie Somers and Kevin Regimbal both went 2 for 2 down the stretch to secure the victory.

“Toward the end we had some turnovers because we had the lead and we were trying to take time off the clock,” Albus said. “We knew it was going to be a free-throw game. We still didn’t do as well as we could’ve, but a win is a win.”