CH earns first district win
By David Breidenbach
Jan 23, 2012, 13:42
COLONIAL HEIGHTS — With the season getting later and later, the Colonials called a team meeting Thursday night for a little straight talk about where they were and where they had hoped they would be.
“We just laid it all out. Any problems we had; anything that was eating us up. We had to go out and say what was on our minds. We talked about things we could do to be better as a team. I think tonight we played like a family,” Derrick Holmes said.
Holmes, one of the team’s two leading scorers, said the players got a lot of junk off their chests. They realized they couldn’t win as a bunch of individual parts and needed to work together in order to salvage the season, starting with the Matoaca game Friday night.
On Friday night, they accomplished that goal. The Colonials were hitting on all cylinders, took control of the game early, hit foul shots down the stretch and knocked off Matoaca 88-84 in a nail-biting classic.
“A lot of good things came out of the meeting and the guys came up with shared responsibilities and tonight they made a collective effort for the win,” Colonials Coach John Thomas Jr. said. “We talked about things we as individuals weren’t doing, and how much we needed each other to win ball games.”
Still, all the talk in the world means nothing without action. And action is what the Colonials brought to the court right away. In terms of motivation, Miles Hicks’ tomahawk jam following a T.J. Daniels’ miss on a three-point attempt in the opening minutes set a new and different tone for the game. Hicks, known for his dunks, said he wanted to make a statement.
“Usually I try to throw it down left hand and miss. This time I got my wrist up in there. They didn’t play us smart; usually teams double team me down low and I have to kick it out to my guards,” Hicks said.
That was just the beginning for Hicks, who netted 15 points, most on stick-backs from missed long balls, had several blocks, and grabbed 17 boards. His inside play was so tough, Matoaca ended up with two men inside, but the Colonials’ outside shooters took advantage anytime they weren’t being covered, and Doug Jackson backed up Hicks’ play with 11 boards of his own. Both Holmes and T.J. Daniels were on target from the get go. Holmes, who ended the night with six 3-pointers and 23 points, hit his first two from distance in the first quarter. But when he
picked up his second foul, he quickly found his way to the bench. But the Colonials didn’t have to worry much with him taking a break. Daniels ate up the Warriors in the first half, knocking down three three-pointers while scoring 17 of his game high 29 points to lead the Colonials to a 12-point half time lead, 46-34.
“Coach said ‘play in the flow of the game and the game will come to you. It always does,’” Daniels said.
In the flow of the game, Daniels scored 14 points in the second quarter when the Colonials surged to take a relatively big 12-point lead. JaQuan Hicks, who had come in to replace Holmes, chipped in a pair of baskets. And when Holmes hit the court toward the end of the second quarter, he popped in a three and a pair of free throws.
“When me and T.J. are hitting, it just sort of clicks. I think that’s exactly a result of the meeting. Coach talked about how we should complement each other on the court, and that’s when we are playing the best,” Holmes said.
Free throws ended up being huge for the Colonials, who hit all six attempts in the second quarter, and 76 percent, 19 of 25, as a team for the game. None of them were more important than the three-of-four that Jackson knocked down in the closing seconds to secure the win. Coming out in the third quarter, the Colonials needed to get on track again. They did so when Holmes cranked things up with a three from the right corner. He hit four of his six threes in the second half. The Colonials’ deft field play led to a 20-point lead and caused the Warriors to call time out. The time out was timely for the Warriors. They came out knowing what they needed to do to salvage the game. They turned up their defensive intensity and started to look for their three-point shooters, especially Devin Morgan, who racked up four three-pointers and 14 points to help the Warriors close to within three points in the waning seconds of the game. Tevin Johnson added six points, to help the Warriors outscore the Colonials 26-21 in the final quarter. Morgan finished the night with 21 points, Johnson had 15, Khalil Coleman 14, Birdsong 12, and Armstrong 11 for the Warriors.
“We played good defense, we didn’t give up easy buckets, and that frustrated them. And that gave us the chance to build a cushion in the first half,” Thomas said.
Despite the Warriors battle to get back in the game, it seemed like everything was going the Colonials’ way. Brian Johnson and Tasos Dones, the Colonials point guards, were constantly pressuring Matoaca. Time and again they came up with big stop, steals, or just plain hustle plays to keep the team ahead. Daniels finished the night with 29 points, Holmes had 23, M. Hicks 15, and J. Hicks 10 for the Colonials. Things were going so well, that one time as Daniels was cutting to the basket following a steal, he felt a defender on his shoulder. Knowing he was in trouble with no one around to pass to, Daniels started to spin away from the defense, leaped up toward the basket, and connected on an improbable scoop shot that dropped through the net.
“I felt him come across this shoulder, so my first thought was to spin away. I never thought the shot would go in,” Daniels said.
The action over the final two minutes of play was as tense and exciting as an action-movie script. Morgan hit a long three to cut the lead to seven points, 82-75, with just under two minutes to play. He fouled Holmes on the in-bound play, and Holmes missed the front end of a one-and-one. On the ensuing possession, Morgan nailed another three-pointer closing the gap to a mere four points, 82-78, with 1:26 on the clock. At that point, the importance of every possession was magnified. Holmes was fouled again on the in-bound play and converted one of two free throws to make the score 83-78 with 33 seconds left in the game. Miles hit a basket down low to push the lead back to seven, 85-78. But Johnson hit a three to get Matoaca back to within four points, 85-81. With 17 seconds left, Jackson got the in-bound pass and was immediately fouled. The 6’5 sophomore stepped to the line and promptly drilled both attempts, pushing the lead to six points, 87-81. The Warriors fired another shot, but Jackson came down with the rebound this time and soon found himself on the foul line again. This time, he missed the first shot but managed to get the second, putting the Colonials up by seven with four seconds to play. Morgan was able to find the range one more time to reach the final score, 88-84.
Box Score
Matoaca 18 16 24 26 — 84
Colonial Heights 19 27 21 21 — 88
Matoaca: Coleman 14, Birdsong 12, Armstrong 11, Lewis 3, Morgan 21, Johnson 15, Bolton 8. Colonial Heights: Dones 4, Johnson 2, Holmes 23, Daniels 29, J. Hicks 10, M. Hicks 15, Jackson 5.
