Battle Tested VES Gets Revenge
Virginia Episcopal was able to revenge a State championship loss to Blue Ridge last year and claim their 1st VISAA D2 State championship with a 65-56 win. The Bishops won the D3 championship in 2011. Kentucky commit Sacha Killeya-Jones scored 23 points and grabbed 12 rebounds while Justice Kithcart added 19 points four assists and three steals. The Bishops won as a #7 seed.
"We've been battle tested," Staples said. "We played a tough schedule and we took a lot of losses. A lot of people just looked at our record thought we weren't good. (Playing a tough schedule) was my goal going into the season. If we faced the toughest competition, then we would be able to stand things on the state level. In the end, it worked out as planned."
The Bishops took the lead in the 1st quarter and never looked back. Virginia Episcopal pulled away when Blue Ridge big man Aamir Simms picked up his second foul in the 1st quarter.
"Our game plan going into the game was to pound it inside," Staples said. "We felt we had an advantage with a 7-footer (Admir Besovic) and a 6-10 (Killeya-Jones) guy. When Simms went out, it just opened it up even more so we started to go to Satcha a little more. We went there and we took advantage of it."
As he did in the semi-final game, sharpshooter Kevin Quinn was again on fire early with two 3-pointers and eight total points. Quinn would finish with 13 points. Kithcart buried a three with five minutes to go in the 2nd quarter to push the lead to 25-19 and his steal and layup led to two free throws that made the score 32-23.
Virginia Episcopal extended the lead to 48-33 after the 3rd quarter and the margin reached 18 late in the third. Blue Ridge would get as close to 10 points but an alley-oop dunk by Killeya-Jones from Kithcart pretty much ended the threat.
Blue Ridge was led by Canisius commit Malik Johnson who scored 19 points. Simms scored 10 of his 14 points in the 4th quarter. Clemson commit Scott Spencer was limited to five points; all in the 1st half.
"Thank God for this team, thank God for this championship, and thank God for those guys listening," Staples said. "Without God this would not have happened. It took a lot of time, a lot of prayers, a lot of tough times, but in the end it was worth it."