CCHS boys can’t hang on for first win

CHARLOTTESVILLE — Bobby Zajkowski and the Culpeper Blue Devils were up by ten points after three quarters, but couldn’t close out their first win of the season, falling 63-58 to Waynesboro Monday in the consolation round of The Daily Progress Holiday Boys Basketball Classic.

Zajkowski scored a game-high 25 points for Culpeper. The sophomore had eight three-pointers in the game, including 7-for-10 from behind the arc in the first half.

“Bobby’s working very hard in practice,” Culpeper coach James Thompson said. “He reaped the benefits today. He just has to stay with it — I have the upmost confidence that he’s going to be a good player.”

Culpeper held its lead until 1:30 left in the fourth, when Jordan Ross found the back door to the Blue Devil’s zone to put Waynesboro up 59-58. Four free throws by Storm Burks sealed the deal for the Little Giants.

“I haven’t seen anybody on the team that’s stepping up to be the leader,” Thompson said. “Everybody wants to follow so I’m trying to see who will develop into one right now.”

With sophomores Zajkowski and Justin Smith leading the way along with freshman Josh Majors, the Culpeper squad is being led by underclassmen against senior rich teams such as Waynesboro.

“Right now the underclassmen are starting to show their identity more than my upperclassmen,” Thompson said.

Waynesboro chipped away at the Culpeper lead throughout the last frame by using the one entity Culpeper lacks — size.

“In the fourth quarter we just said we got to pick up the defensive intensity and when they miss we have to rebound better,” Waynesboro coach C. Jay DeWitt said. “We rebounded the ball a lot better in that fourth quarter.”

Majors and Cortez Rollins each scored 10 points for Culpeper. Rollins also brought down a team-high seven rebounds while Smith had a game-high six assists.

In the second and third quarters Culpeper looked like a different squad. Down seven after the first, the Blue Devils went into a full-court press which launched them into a 7-0 run to tie it up, and then a Zajkowski long-ball forced DeWitt to call a timeout with Waynesboro down 23-20.

“The thing is, we did that with a freshman and two sophomores,” Thompson said. “I didn’t have one upperclassman out there. They’re trying their best — they play with reckless abandon.”

The press led Culpeper to a 41-29 lead at the break. The Blue Devils forced Waynesboro into 11 turnovers by halftime while committing three.

Both squads employed a combination of zone defense and full-court pressure throughout the night.

“That actually played into our hands because we play against that in practice every day,” Thompson said.

When the three pointers kept dropping for Culpeper, it forced Waynesboro to get out of their usual zone defense and play man-to-man.

“We’re not really a man-to-man team, but they were up and we had to put a little pressure on them,” DeWitt said. “It’s not our strength but it worked for us tonight.”

Waynesboro (2-6) was led by Chris Johnson, who finished the night with 10 points and 10 rebounds for the double-double. Ross had 16 points for the Little Giants, while Sam Richerson had 11 and Clyde Thompson tallied 10.

Culpeper (0-10) will move on to the 7th-place game against Covenant today at Albemarle High School. Tipoff is scheduled for 12:45 p.m.

Matt Rock can be reached at