Landstown, Princess Anne Win ODU Team Camp

The Beach District has had a strong run of success lately on the hardwood. Just last season, those schools went a combined 4-0 in Championship games for Region 6A and Region 5A for Boys and Girls Basketball at the Norfolk Scope. Cox and Salem - neither of which finished with the district's best record - ended up with surprising runs to region titles on the boys side.

If last weekend's ODU Basketball Team Camp serves as any indication, the district will once again field some competitive squads as two of the city's programs came away with hardware as the last ones standing in separate brackets.

Capturing the Championship of the 16 team single eliminiaton Monarch Division at the ODU Team Camp was Landstown, a program no stranger to winning as they've gone 303-131 in 17 seasons under Head Coach Dwight Robinson.

Judging from a dominant showing at the ODU Team Camp in which the Eagles went 7-1 over the three-day stretch, this just might be Robinson's biggest and most versatile squad with a front-line that'll feature four significant contributors all 6-foot-4 or taller and a variety of ball-handlers who boast reasonable experience along with solid individual skill-sets.

“Getting guys to step up in the summer time and doing what we need them to do, I think it gives us momentum heading into our off-season and the season," commented Ryan Goings, a former two-sport standout at Landstown in football and basketball who coaches the group in the summer.

Goings played on Landstown's 2004-05 team - which also featured Percy Harvin (a Super Bowl Champion with the NFL's Seattle Seahawks), Stanley Pringle (Penn State basketball), Theo Baker, Rashad Phillips, Damon McDaniel and Markus Black among others - that finished AAA State Tournament runner-up to Woodside. He points to a couple of things in regards to why the Eagles have maintained their level of consistency among the top teams around over so many years.

“It’s all about effort and caring about the guy beside you. You can’t have a team unless you care about the guy beside you," Goings noted. "You can have one guy as a superstar, but that guy beside him who’s the last man on the bench has to care about that guy. That guy who is #1 has to care about that last man in order to keep it together and everybody have consistency.”

For this current cast of Eagles, their go-to guy is clearly 6-foot-5 forward Michael Christmas, the Group 6A State Player of the Year as a sophomore that helped them to their first regional title during the 2016-17 campaign. Christmas returned midway through last season, after playing the first part of his junior year at Huntington Prep in West Virginia, and is still getting back into tip-top basketball playing shape.

Christmas made four key free-throws in the final 35 seconds of their comeback win over Norview in the quarterfinals of Sunday's tourney. Most of ODU's coaching staff, including Head Coach Jeff Jones, watched him closely throughout the weekend.

Others besides Christmas made their presence felt. A trio of rising seniors - point guard Deante Mobley, Christian Jones and Chase Turner (nephew of former NBA player Corey Alexander) - proved more than serviceable in the backcourt. Jones looks to be their best knock-down shooter from the outside and charge taker. Meanwhile, Lamont Oliphant, a 6-foot-4 rising senior swingman, can cause matchup problems with his athleticism and length.

Oliphant, who earned 2nd Team All-Beach District recognition as a junior, injured his ankle on Saturday, yet played through it for part of Sunday's tourney. The Eagles began the Team Camp by rallying from a 20-18 half-time deficit to beat Norview 45-31. They followed that up with wins on Saturday over Bertie (NC) and Woodside, defeating a Wolverines team with at least four next-level players by a commanding count of 54-18.

As Landstown navigated the 20-minute running clock in Sunday's tourney with wins over Kempsville (23-12), Norview (20-19), Woodside (21-20) and Georgia Military Prep (28-18), a couple of breakout names emerged. Josh Petitma, a 6-foot-6 rising junior, and Corey Martin, a 6-foot-4 forward from the Class of 2021, both made a handful of winning plays. In Petitma's case, his impact was felt particularly on the defensive end in blocking and challenging shots at the rim.

“We expect the older guys to lead the younger guys and be consistent. From the young guys, all we want is effort. Give them one or two assignments, let them master that and we should be good," commented Goings, who found out some things about this team during the Team Camp.

"I learned that they actually can listen. Some things they did on Friday, they did on Sunday. So we saw consistency there. Then we had Corey come in and play big minutes since Lamont was hurt."

For years under Robinson, the Eagles have been known for their aggressive and relentless defensive pressure. They've had height before - led by former All-State 6'8" center Darius Bolstad (now playing at Radford University) - yet they shouldn't have to alter their playing style that much with this unit.

“Bolstad was a big guy. But these guys are long and athletic. We weren’t able to press full-court as much with Bolstad. With this team, I think we can really get up and down," Goings believes.

"Some of the guys will be able to handle the ball. We can basically have five guys on the court that can handle it, and most teams can’t do that.”

Four times before, the Eagles have reached the State Tournament, denied of winning the crown by Woodside (2005), Colonial Forge (2014), Westfield (2015) and W.T. Woodson (2017). Labeling them the definite favorite in Class 6 for next winter right now would be a bit premature, though the ingredients are in place for them to make a serious Championship push.

“We just want to see them collectively come together. Individually, some guys just need to work on their games, work on their strength, conditioning, whether it’s gaining a few pounds, dropping a few pounds, and all of that can help us become a better team all together," Goings said.

"We’re not worried about July. We’re worried about March so we can finally get that Championship.”

When people think of Princess Anne and basketball, what often first comes to mind is the nationally-recognized girls program under the tutelage of Darnell Dozier, a man that has guided the Lady Cavs to a record of 606-53 overall (.911) with nine State Championships - five in a row - in 23 seasons at the helm.

But the Princess Anne boys have experienced winning before, capturing a Group AAA state title in 1998-99 under Gary Cason. That seems forever ago for a program that has finished above .500 only twice in the past 15 years - a 14-8 mark under Tim Sparks in 2015-16 and 12-11 last season under Head Coach Corey Coffer.

The Cavaliers are coming off their first regional playoff appearance since 2003, when they won the Beach District Tournament. Princess Anne led Green Run by six with 4:24 to go in the opening round of the Class 5, Region A Tournament this past February before the Stallions closed on a 13-4 run, eliminating the heart-broken Cavs, 55-52.

PA's top two scorers from that game - Class of 2019 point guard Tim Montgomery and Class of 2020 two-sport standout Azaiyah Roberts (who holds an offer from UVA in football) - are back. Roberts was a 1st Team All-Beach District choice last winter on the hardwood, while Montgomery garnered 2nd Team All-Beach honors.

In Roberts, the Cavs have a rugged interior force at 6-foot-4, 215 pounds that regularly puts up double-figures in points and rebounds. Montgomery runs the show at the point and is on the radar of quite a few colleges with his ability to get to the basket and set others up to score. They along with 2019 guard Amory Smith - a newcomer from Bayside - paced them to a first place finish in the 13 team single elimination Lion Division at the ODU Team Camp.

“The guys played well towards the back end of the camp. I really like what we’ve got going on right now, meaning once I can get a full group together, I think we have potential to be a pretty good team this year," declared Coffer, gearing up for his third season as PA's Head Coach.

"The first night we played against Norfolk Collegiate, I just think we were real flat defensively. We didn’t talk a lot. That’s where our leadership with Tim and Zai has to come in, helping their teammates make sure they know where they’re supposed to be on the floor. But I like where we are headed.”

Following the 49-37 loss to Norfolk Collegiate on the opening night of the camp, the Cavs were able to re-group and get in a much better rhythm at both ends of the court. That seemed most noticeable in Sunday's 20-minute running clock tourney, where they ousted Bayside 19-11, avenged the loss to Norfolk Collegiate with a 31-27 semifinal triumph and outlasted Hayfield - a Class 6 State Tournament qualifier this past year - in a 21-15 victory for the trophy.

Coffer was encouraged that they got it done without a projected starter 6'7" rising senior forward Ade Jenkins. Even with a couple of starting guards from a season ago in Philip Gill (D-3 Johnson Wales University in Rhode Island) and Sidney Kennedy having graduated, the rotation looks to be coming along for the Virginia Beach school that doesn't plan to take a backseat to established district foes such as Cox, Green Run, Kellam or Landstown.

“Honestly with Tim and Amory in the backcourt together, I think we’re going to be able to do a lot of different things and more things than we were able to last year. A good full off-season is going to benefit us a lot," believes Coffer, eager to get his guys in the Championship hunt like Dozier's gals.

"Also, once we get Ade back, we’ll be able to do a lot more as well. To get to that next step, really what I’d like to build upon is our younger guys and depth. When we lost to Green Run, one of the issues was our depth. I’m really looking to be able to be in a position to bring guys off the bench constantly and them being able to produce.”

Matthew Hatfield serves as Publisher for VirginiaPreps.com, part of the Rivals.com Network, and is a regular contributor to the ACC Sports Journal. 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 to Noon on ESPN Radio 94.1.