Never Tell Me the Odds

There is no Plan B.

 

That’s the mindset with which Collegiate’s varsity boys basketball team approached each game this past season, even when records, rankings, and on-court matchups suggested that achieving victory would be a tall, if not insurmountable, task.

 

Rewind, if you will, to the night of Feb. 14, when the Cougars took on St. Christopher’s on the Steve Hickman Court in their regular season finale.

 

The Saints entered the game 20-3 and ranked second in the Richmond Times-Dispatch Top 10 and sixth in the latest VISAA state poll. The Cougars, who lost to SC 61-54 on Jan. 24, were 10-11.

 

Add to the mix that the Saints’ go-to guy is Darius Gray, a 6-4, 285 junior who operates with power and dexterity both in the paint and, if the situation necessitates, on the perimeter. They also have guys who can shoot the 3, defend, get the ball to Gray inside, and receive it from him as well in the rare times opposing defenses manage to hold him in check.

 

Though they were well aware of the Saints’ ability and respected them for their success, the Cougars were undaunted.

 

“Our plan was to win,” said Nick Leonardelli, Collegiate’s first year head coach, who headed the program at Henrico High School the previous three seasons after spending 14 years as a college assistant. “Our guys truly believed that they could compete with them.

 

“If we put our best foot forward, play our brand of basketball, and make sure the game goes at the pace that suits us best, we’re capable of winning every time we step on the court. We have incredibly competitive players who aren’t scared of big moments like that.”

 

Before a high-decibel packed house, as is almost always the case with this rivalry, which dates back to the early 1960s, the Saints held a 17-13 lead after a quarter and went into halftime up 34-31.

 

While Gray scored 17 of his 38 points during that stretch, the Cougars’ Aidan Gregory scored 19 of his 27 on a combination of three 3-pointers, buckets from close range when he maneuvered through the Saints’ man-to-man, and 6-for-8 accuracy from the free throw line.

 

“From the jump, I was feeling it,” said Gregory, a 6-2 junior guard. “Then, I hit those threes to start out the game, so it opened up a lot more of my inside game. My best strength is creating open space and driving, but hitting those threes really opened up the rest of the floor for me, so they couldn’t guard me any particular way.”

 

Gray scored from point-blank range to open the third quarter and put the Saints up 36-31, but Xay Davis scored on a stickback off an offensive rebound at 7:00, Owen Odom hit two free throws at 6:42, and Gregory added two more at 5:38 to give the Cougars a 37-36 lead.

 

Connor Welch nailed a three at 5:20 to put the Saints up 39-37. Then, Frank MacNelly followed with a three-point play at 4:11 to send Collegiate ahead 40-39.

 

“The difference between this game and the [Collegiate-SC] game the other night was that we fought a lot harder as a team this time,” said Henry Brost, a 6-1 junior forward and Christopher Newport lacrosse commit. “We came out wanting to win.”

 

Brost’s forte is hard-nosed, scrap-and-claw, no-holds-barred defense.

 

“For me,” he said, “it’s, I’m here. I’m giving it all that I’ve got. That’s what I signed up for. That’s what I love doing. I might as well do it the best I can. My role on the team isn’t to score as much as maybe I’d like, but I try to be the glue-piece of the team: make the hustle plays, make the defensive plays, and do my part to win the game.”

 

St. Christopher’s went up 52-46 early in the fourth quarter, but the Cougars wouldn’t go away.  Davis Bruning’s three-ball from the left corner enabled them to close to 54-51 at 4:37, at which point SC coach Hamill Jones called time and reminded his guys to get the ball to Gray and let him go to work.

 

They did, he did, and they outscored the Cougars 16-9 to claim the victory.

 

The defeat stung, but the pride in workmanship Leonardelli’s crew displayed by playing each possession with purpose and resolve and never relenting, the outcome notwithstanding, mitigated the sting.

“As a team, you should always have hope and will and fight,” Gregory said. “No matter who you’re playing and what they’ve done previously, you want to go out there and compete. As a team, we’re connected enough to know we’re never out of a game. We’ve had a lot of close games this year. By staying in the mentality of (believing that) we can always win, we always have a chance. We don’t believe in moral victories. We always want the win. We have to do whatever it takes.”

~Weldon Bradshaw