Village Christian boys edge Trinity for Sandhills championship
By Joseph Myers, Correspondent
Posted at 12:56 AM
Knights snap Crusaders’ 20-game winning streak
The boys’ championship game of the NCISAA Sandhills Conference Tournament between Trinity Christian and Village Christian Saturday night at Freedom Christian had all of the characteristics of a heavyweight title fight.
Each team landed its share of punches and took turns controlling the momentum of the game. The outcome wasn’t decided until the final seconds and the sizable crowd that attended definitely got its money’s worth.
When the final buzzer sounded, Village Christian edged Trinity, 58-57, to win the conference title and snap the Crusaders’ 20-game winning streak that dated back to a Nov. 26 contest against the Knights that saw Village win, 55-53, on the Crusaders’ home court.
“Anytime you can beat Trinity Christian, you know you’ve done something,” said Village head coach Kurtis Darden. “They always come to compete, they play hard and they hardly ever lose. I told my guys before the game that I don’t care about the state playoffs. For us, this was our state title game because Fayetteville as a city has so many talented players and programs.”
Village (20-6) held a 58-57 lead with 6.5 seconds to go and Zavian McLean at the free-throw line for a one-and-one, but McLean missed the free throw and Trinity (24-2) got the rebound. However, as the Crusaders brought the ball up the floor, they had a turnover and the Knights were able to hold on for the win.
“Give (Village) credit,” said Trinity head coach Heath Vandevender. “They played hard and deserved to win. I thought we played hard, but we struggled finishing at the rim. Some of them might have been fouls, but some of them were just missed shots. We didn’t have our leading scorer and rebounder (Todd Burt Jr.), but we had some guys come in and do some good things for us over the past couple of days.”
Darden agreed that the game could’ve gone either way.
“We didn’t play our best, but we made the plays we needed to win the game,” said Darden. “This was a game where you throw out the stat sheet. The 50-50 plays and loose balls and things like that is where you win this kind of game. We just ended up playing hard enough to make the winning plays at the end of the game.”
After Trinity opened the game in a 2-3 zone, Village made four 3-pointers in the first quarter to open up a 16-10 advantage heading to the second period. The Knights built a 26-17 lead, but the Crusaders switched to a man-to-man defense and scored the half’s final 10 points to lead 27-26 at the break.
“We started out in the zone because we wanted to save our legs a bit,” said Vandevender. “We were going to play zone for the first half and manage things from there. However, we switched and that sparked a little run for us.”
Trinity still led 43-41 going into the fourth quarter before Village came back, going on a 9-3 run to lead, 56-50, with 2:02 to go. The Crusaders scored four straight to get to within 56-54 with 41 seconds remaining, but a pair of free throws by McLean pushed Village’s advantage back out to 58-54 with 15.2 seconds left.
However, Cam Oates nailed a 3-pointer with 8 seconds remaining to get Trinity to within 58-57 and after a timeout by the Crusaders, McLean was fouled, setting up the dramatic ending.
“I feel like we’re in a good place right now,” said Darden. “Our season has been up and down and you want to be playing your best at the end of the season and I feel like we’ve played our best in the last two games. We just want to keep it going.”
McLean finished with a game-high 25 points to lead Village and Justin Thomas had 12 for the Knights. Marcus Boykin led Trinity with 14 and Oates and Xavier Matthews chipped in 10 apiece for the Crusaders in the loss.
Both Trinity and Village will now move on to the NCISAA State Tournament. The brackets for the tournament will be set Sunday afternoon and the opening round is scheduled for Tuesday. Trinity and Village are both expected to receive opening-round byes.
“We wanted to win this, but we’re fine,” said Vandevender. “The building isn’t going to come crashing down around us because we didn’t win tonight. We’re just going to go back to work, get (Burt) back and get ready for the state tournament.”
VILLAGE CHRISTIAN 58, TRINITY CHRISTIAN 57
Village Christian;16;10;15;17;—;58
Trinity Christian;;10;17;16;14;—;57
VILLAGE CHRISTIAN — Zavian McLean 25, Justin Thomas 12, Reed 7, Higgins 6, Wilds 4, Zy McLean 4.
TRINITY CHRISTIAN — Marcus Boykin 14, Cam Oates 10, Xavier Matthews 10, McDougald 8, Wright 7, Jackson 6, Dilione 2.
3-point goals: VC — Zav. McLean 3, Higgins 2, Thomas 2, Reed 1. TC — Oates 2, McDougald 2, Matthews 1.
Records: Village Christian 20-6. Trinity Christian 24-2.
By Joseph Myers, Correspondent
Posted at 12:56 AM
Knights snap Crusaders’ 20-game winning streak
The boys’ championship game of the NCISAA Sandhills Conference Tournament between Trinity Christian and Village Christian Saturday night at Freedom Christian had all of the characteristics of a heavyweight title fight.
Each team landed its share of punches and took turns controlling the momentum of the game. The outcome wasn’t decided until the final seconds and the sizable crowd that attended definitely got its money’s worth.
When the final buzzer sounded, Village Christian edged Trinity, 58-57, to win the conference title and snap the Crusaders’ 20-game winning streak that dated back to a Nov. 26 contest against the Knights that saw Village win, 55-53, on the Crusaders’ home court.
“Anytime you can beat Trinity Christian, you know you’ve done something,” said Village head coach Kurtis Darden. “They always come to compete, they play hard and they hardly ever lose. I told my guys before the game that I don’t care about the state playoffs. For us, this was our state title game because Fayetteville as a city has so many talented players and programs.”
Village (20-6) held a 58-57 lead with 6.5 seconds to go and Zavian McLean at the free-throw line for a one-and-one, but McLean missed the free throw and Trinity (24-2) got the rebound. However, as the Crusaders brought the ball up the floor, they had a turnover and the Knights were able to hold on for the win.
“Give (Village) credit,” said Trinity head coach Heath Vandevender. “They played hard and deserved to win. I thought we played hard, but we struggled finishing at the rim. Some of them might have been fouls, but some of them were just missed shots. We didn’t have our leading scorer and rebounder (Todd Burt Jr.), but we had some guys come in and do some good things for us over the past couple of days.”
Darden agreed that the game could’ve gone either way.
“We didn’t play our best, but we made the plays we needed to win the game,” said Darden. “This was a game where you throw out the stat sheet. The 50-50 plays and loose balls and things like that is where you win this kind of game. We just ended up playing hard enough to make the winning plays at the end of the game.”
After Trinity opened the game in a 2-3 zone, Village made four 3-pointers in the first quarter to open up a 16-10 advantage heading to the second period. The Knights built a 26-17 lead, but the Crusaders switched to a man-to-man defense and scored the half’s final 10 points to lead 27-26 at the break.
“We started out in the zone because we wanted to save our legs a bit,” said Vandevender. “We were going to play zone for the first half and manage things from there. However, we switched and that sparked a little run for us.”
Trinity still led 43-41 going into the fourth quarter before Village came back, going on a 9-3 run to lead, 56-50, with 2:02 to go. The Crusaders scored four straight to get to within 56-54 with 41 seconds remaining, but a pair of free throws by McLean pushed Village’s advantage back out to 58-54 with 15.2 seconds left.
However, Cam Oates nailed a 3-pointer with 8 seconds remaining to get Trinity to within 58-57 and after a timeout by the Crusaders, McLean was fouled, setting up the dramatic ending.
“I feel like we’re in a good place right now,” said Darden. “Our season has been up and down and you want to be playing your best at the end of the season and I feel like we’ve played our best in the last two games. We just want to keep it going.”
McLean finished with a game-high 25 points to lead Village and Justin Thomas had 12 for the Knights. Marcus Boykin led Trinity with 14 and Oates and Xavier Matthews chipped in 10 apiece for the Crusaders in the loss.
Both Trinity and Village will now move on to the NCISAA State Tournament. The brackets for the tournament will be set Sunday afternoon and the opening round is scheduled for Tuesday. Trinity and Village are both expected to receive opening-round byes.
“We wanted to win this, but we’re fine,” said Vandevender. “The building isn’t going to come crashing down around us because we didn’t win tonight. We’re just going to go back to work, get (Burt) back and get ready for the state tournament.”
VILLAGE CHRISTIAN 58, TRINITY CHRISTIAN 57
Village Christian;16;10;15;17;—;58
Trinity Christian;;10;17;16;14;—;57
VILLAGE CHRISTIAN — Zavian McLean 25, Justin Thomas 12, Reed 7, Higgins 6, Wilds 4, Zy McLean 4.
TRINITY CHRISTIAN — Marcus Boykin 14, Cam Oates 10, Xavier Matthews 10, McDougald 8, Wright 7, Jackson 6, Dilione 2.
3-point goals: VC — Zav. McLean 3, Higgins 2, Thomas 2, Reed 1. TC — Oates 2, McDougald 2, Matthews 1.
Records: Village Christian 20-6. Trinity Christian 24-2.
