The John Champe Knights won a wild basketball game on Friday night against their 4A-West Conference 22 rival Freedom of South Riding. In fact, a year ago in the conference playoffs, Champe outlasted Freedom by a count of 99-94 in overtime.
Once again, the Eagles were unable to knock off Champe, but the main reason was the brilliance of 6'0" guard Dom Fragala, a Second Team All-State performer a season ago who has only gotten better, evidenced by the first four games of his senior campaign.
Fragala scored 63 points - both a personal-high and school-record - to lead Champe to a 100-95 victory in double-overtime. He made 16 shots, 13 of them inside the arc and three from long distance, while also converting 28-of-30 free-throws.
In fact, the scoring outburst by Fragala was the most in a VHSL game since 1984 when Danny Honaker poured in a whopping 78 points for Whitewood against Keokee. Only ten individuals have put up more points in one game than Fragala's 63 in VHSL history dating back to 1950.
Champe, which is only in its fifth year of existence, moved up from 3A to 4A last season and went 23-5 overall, falling to Lake Taylor 76-69 in the State Tournament semifinals. Fragala averaged 18.3 points per game and sank a team-best 67 three-pointers while draining 126-of-146 free-throws (86.3%) in his first season with the Knights after transferring from Bishop O'Connell.
Through four games this year, the Knights - who opened ranked #10 in Group 4A - are 3-1 overall. They lost to #7 Handley 64-61 in the opener, but rebounded with three straight wins, including beating Fauquier 85-52 and Liberty 91-58. Fragala has put up 39, 24 and 33 points in those games, currently having made 12 three-pointers this season and 51-of-62 free-throws (82.3%).
To date, it has not been reported yet of Fragala receiving a Division I offer, though a number of schools, which include George Mason among those, have expressed significant interest.
At the rate he's going, averaging almost 40 points per game, expect Fragala to draw the attention of several colleges before his career in a Champe uniform comes to a close.
Matthew Hatfield has covered football and basketball since 2004 for VirginiaPreps.com, part of the Rivals.com Network, and is a staff writer for Tar Heel Illustrated. Check out Hatfield’s Twitter page for more sports related updates, and you can also read his work in the Suffolk News Herald. To contact Matthew, please e-mail hatfieldsports2k4@yahoo.com, and don’t forget to listen to him every Saturday at 10 AM on ESPN Radio 94.1, plus watch him on the Cox 11 Sports Report.
