The electricity filled the air in MacLaughlin Fitness Center as the Hopewell Blue Devils and L.C Bird Skyhawks took to the floor for their warm-ups. The center was filled with hundreds of fans cheering on their perspective schools. Fort Lee made the most out of their 17th Holiday tournament by offering raffled prizes, giveaways, and a halftime show. However, the real draw was Fernando Powell, Kenya Williams and Joemi Byrd who played a major part in helping their teams make it to the championship game.
Hopewell won the opening tip off, then drove down the floor to hit a 3 pointer, courtesy of Larry Luckett. That set the tone for the entire game as both teams traded baskets throughout the 1st quarter to end it in a 16-16 tie. Second quarter started off just as exciting with Marcus Jones, of LC Bird, hitting two back to back threes. After Jones hit his second three pointer, the Blue Devils went on a short run to take the lead, going into half time with a score of 32-26. Larry Luckett led the Blue Devils in scoring during the first half with 12 points. However, Joemi Byrd and Kenya Williams provided consistency throughout the game by scoring a combined 17 points for the Blue Devils. Marcus Jones led the Skyhawks with 10 and the Blue Devils contained Fernando Powell. Hopewell was able to limit Fernando Powell to just four points in the first half. Powell had been one of the leading scorers in the tournament, scoring 46 up to the championship game.
Second half started with a different tune. Bird came out strong by scoring first. Powell stepped up the pace and started to exert himself. Not to be unnoticed, Kenya Williams did the very same thing by matching all three of Powell’s 3 pointers. Then the excitement grew even greater when Bird was able to take the lead mid way through the fourth quarter. Hopewell began to slow things down going corner to corner, forcing Bird to break its momentum after taking the lead. Then after a rebound, Bird breaks down the court passing the ball to Powell who stopped at the top right of the key to score a three. Kenya, not to be out done, stops and popped a three of his own. Kenya and Powell exchanged a couple of three pointers. The game was coming down to the wire, Williams was fouled, but only made 1 of 2 from the charity stripe. With just: 32 seconds left in the game, Michael Spriggs fights for a rebound and the clock ran down to :17 seconds, Spriggs is fouled! With everyone sitting on the edge of their seats, Spriggs hit both free throws to put Hopewell up by three, 64 to 61. On the inbound pass LC Bird gets the ball to their go to man, Fernando Powell, he shoots a three but misses. Bird takes the rebound, kicks it out to Brain Hay who also attempts a three, he misses! Again they fight for the rebound only to lose it to Hopewell as time expires. The Blue Devils win the Fort Lee Holiday Championship!
Disappointment could be felt by all the Bird fans but the exuberance of the Blue Devil fans filled the air as Hopewell is crowned the 17th Champion of the Fort Lee Holiday Tournament.
In the other games earlier that evening, Dinwiddie took on Matoaca to determine the 7th place finisher. Shawn Harris led the Warriors to their first win over a AAA team this year. The Warriors scalped the Generals 60-39. Harris scored game high 32 points, as he became the tournament-leading scorer, scoring 86 points for the tournament. The Crimson Wave drowned the Wildcats, 72-38. Petersburg really took complete control of the game after Armstrong’s Dwayne Atkins is called for two technicals and ejected from the game. Donnie Pride who had a game high 16 led Petersburg and Herbert Jones added an additional 15 for the Wave. Battling for third place proved to be just as exciting when the Huguenot Falcons dug their talons into the Royals of Prince George beating them 73-65. The Falcons were led by Rendell Seaborne who scored 18 points, scoring 8 of 15 including 2 three pointers. Jonah Cox grabbed 12 rebounds, blocked 2 shots, and hit 7 of 10 from the field to help Huguenot clamp down on third place. AndronWright who scored 27 points and grabbed 10 rebounds led the Royals. Will Marshall added 15 rebounds, 3 blocked shots, and 13 points for Prince George.
All-Tournament Team:
Shawn Harris - Matoaca
Deonte Smith - Petersburg
Donnie Pride - Petersburg
Andron Wright - Prince George
Jonah Cox - Huguenot
Lamont Jordan - Dinwiddie
Fernando Powell - LC Bird
Brian Burnett - LC Bird
Joemi Byrd - Hopewell
Kenya Williams - Hopewell
Day Two
Day two of the tournament showed that Matoaca came to play giving the Crimson Wave all they wanted in the first game of the consolation round. But with 3:45 left in the fourth period, Petersburg began to pull away after a 3-point conversion by #20 Jejuan Harvell. Jejuan and fellow teammate Donnie Pride lead Petersburg with 8 and 7 points respectively in the fourth quarter, as Petersburg wins 68-56. Donnie Pride led Petersburg in overall scoring with 19 points.
Game 2 in the consolation round was pressure packed especially in the second half. As both Dinwiddie and Armstrong featured a defensive full court press which generated multiple turnovers for both teams. However, Dwayne Atkins of Armstrong stole the show hitting 11 of 15 from the floor and 5 of 7 from the stripe. Atkins had a game high 27 points, 7 rebounds, 5 steals and 2 assists. Stacey Flanagan proved to be the big man in the middle blocking 4 shots for Armstrong. Dinwiddie was lead by Lamont Jordan with 13 points. But Armstrong advances to the consolation round championship against Petersburg, this game will decide the 5th place for the overall tournament standing.
In the Championship semifinals, L.C. Bird and Prince George had a hard fought defensive battle, which had Bird coming out on top 62-53. The Royals must have watched the game from the previous night, to see what Fernando Powell could do. Because they contained him very well holding Powell to just 5 points in the first half. The second half was another story as both teams picked up the pace. Fernando Powell comes out spreading his wings breaking away from the containment and scores 17 points in the second half. With 1:55 minutes left Powell hit 2 free throws and finished the game 5 of 5 from the charity stripe. Walter Lewis lead scoring for Prince George with 15 points. . The Falcons don’t know the word quit
The Hopewell Blue Devils continued their winning ways in the semifinals to put them in the Championship game against L.C. Bird. Michael Spriggs sparked the Blue Devils in the first quarter scoring 11 of Hopewell’s 14 and the Blue Devils never looked back. It was a close game throughout providing excitement to the end. Hopewell had 5 players scoring in double digits with a well-balanced offensive attack. Credit goes out to the Falcons because quit is not in their vocabulary, because in the final seconds of the game Jonah Cox scored off a fast break by dunking the ball. Possibly sending a message to their future opponents. Huguenot was lead by Jonah Cox scored a game high 22 points including a game-ending dunk off a fast break
Day One
An exciting first round at MacLaughlin Fitness Center at Fort Lee Military base on December 28th, where the US Army hosted it’s 17th Annual Holiday Tournament. The Tournament features some of the top teams in the Richmond Times Dispatch polls for the Central Region. The tournament has the typical teams from the central district but also draw a few of the teams from Richmond and a few are ranked in the Times Dispatch top 10. The 8 team field include #6 Hopewell Blue Devils, #7 Petersburg Crimson Wave, and #10 Huguenot Falcons. Last year’s champion however; will not partake in defending its championship. The Varina Blue Devils chose to take a break during the holidays. But Hopewell and Petersburg have combined to win over 80% of the Ft. Lee Holiday Tournament championships. This year promises to be very competitive with several teams coming into the tournament with only one lose.
In the first game of the tournament the undefeated Petersburg team met the Skyhawks of LC Bird. It was down to the wire as Bird upsets undefeated Petersburg in overtime, 55-54. It became the Fernando Powell show as he hit two key baskets to lift LC Bird past Petersburg. Powell who finished with a game high 24 points, hit a 10 footer with just 2 seconds left in regulation to send it to overtime. As Bird found themselves down by one with 25 seconds left in overtime, Brian Burnette stole inbound pass. He kicked it out to the top setting up Powell for the game winner with 12 seconds left in overtime.
Game 2 featured Prince George Royals vs. Matoaca Warriors, as the Royals cruised past AA Matoaca, 69-49. Matoaca is a division AA school from the Southside district, who has had a rough time of it so far this year losing most of their games to AAA schools. Their opening round game proved to be no different in the Holiday Tournament. The warriors took an early lead in the first quarter but they couldn’t seem to contain Prince George’s Austin Rawlings who scored three 3 pointers in the second quarter. And turned the momentum to Prince George. Andron Wright led the Royals with 19 points for the game and to the semifinal game against L.C. Bird.
The #10 Falcons of Huguenot defeated Dinwiddie Generals 71-52. Falcons really showed their athleticism in the first half-outscoring Dinwiddie 41-17. Dinwiddie made a run in the third quarter but it just wasn’t enough as the Falcons continue to soar. Huguenot had three players in double figures, lead by 6’4 senior Jonha Cox with 21. Rendell Seaborne also dumped in 17 points for Huguenot.
1st round game 4 pitted the Hopewell Blue Devils against Armstrong Wildcats. Hopewell is no stranger to the tournament, playing in all 17. The Blue Devils trapping defense proved to be to much for Armstrong as Hopewell wins 73-58. Hopewell was lead by a group of talented seniors Joemi Byrd and Kenya Williams. Williams lead the scoring with 23, Byrd added 20 and junior Michael Spriggs dropped in another 14 points to help the Blue Devils advance to the semifinals against Huguenot. Armstrong was lead by Marlon Smith who scored 16 points.
