We gotta win were just some of the pregame words for Highland Springs.

Post game: Excitement, nonstop claps, arms pounding hearts and most importantly

a sigh of relief.

Petersburg had clinched, had delivered and most importantly proved the Crimson

Wave could play with anybody including the defending Group AAA State Champions

Highland Springs.

On Saturday in front of the whole city of Petersburg, the Crimson Wave made

history upsetting the Springers 65-55.

Emotions ran high and passion and desire never ran thicker for Bill Lawson

III's balanced squad. The Crimson Wave are headed to the Group AAA State

tournament. They will play in the Central Region Tournament championship game on

Monday against John Marshall of the Colonial District.

The adversity that Petersburg had to undertake against Highland Springs in

January now was no more as Lawson complimented his team on a job well done

especially holding the Capital District Player of the Year Harry Lee Daniel to

only 9 points.

"It was definitely knowing where Harry Lee Daniel was at all times. We know he

can play well," Lawson said. "We had to play defense."

Before Saturday's game, Terneil Rhodes said there was only one way to beat

Daniel and that was in your face, defend all the time. For junior Chris Moore,

that was his job and he did it well.

As fast as Daniel ran, Moore ran harder and quicker just to get a piece.

"Coach told me I had to play big, get rebounds, watch where he was

shooting," Moore said. "You just had to play with your heart."

One of the biggest things that Lawson reminded his team was to play with pride,

not only play for yourself, your team, play for your city Petersburg.

"This is the most relaxed I've been because I knew how badly we had played

before," Lawson said.

But in front of a packed crowd with all of Petersburg in its midst at the VCU

Siegel Center, the Crimson Wave were champions even without a championship game

in the Central Region Tournament.

From the moment the game began, Petersburg went on the attack, took Highland

Springs out of sight and most importantly out of its comfort zone. Daniel struck

first for the Springers with a high 3-pointer, but Drejon Scott answered right

back with a trey of his own.

For the rest of the first quarter, both teams stayed tight but it was Terneil

Rhodes' buzzing beater 3-pointer that got Petersburg on the map.

"I don't even know I'm just so excited. I was confident the whole way that

we could do this," Rhodes said.

In the second quarter though that was when Highland Spring fell into a rutt it

wasn't hoping for. Because of strong defense, Highland Springs was forced to

take more perimeter shots and even when the Springers got another look at the

basket, shots just weren't falling.

Highland Springs only scored one basket in the second quarter compared to

Petersburg's eight.

"My hats off to Petersburg. We sort of surprised ourselves. You have to

execute, you have to play with poise and actually score," said Highland

Springs coach George Lancaster. "We did neither. We dug ourselves in a

hole."

One of the comments that Lawson made earlier in the week was that this was

Lancaster's best defensive team. On Saturday, the shoe was on the other foot

with Petersburg going on the aggressive attack.

"At halftime we really emphasized defense and try to get aggressive," Lawson

said. "We only ran two defenses tonight. We started out in the zone and made

some good adjustments. Then we went to man to man."

But unlike the previous matchup against the Springers in the third quarter, it

was all Petersburg domination as Rhodes, Rassoull, and Cadarian Raines took it

to the hoop. After missing four foul shots in the first half, Raines made his

most important in the third. Against Highland Springs, the Crimson Wave had lost

its 11 point lead that they had built and on Saturday Petersburg didn't

relinquish its lead.

Like Scott had said, in that game, the team wasn't ready to be No. 1, they

couldn't handle the pressure. That wasn't the case. Scott drained his three

3s, Rassoull made his spin shots, Rhodes made his jumpers and Raines made his

blocks.

But nothing could prepare either teams when Rhodes went up high for his slam

dunk in the fourth quarter. As soon as Rhodes went up, it was immediately called

as an intentional foul and players including Rhodes and Daniel who committed the

foul had to be held back. Senior leader Nathaniel Taylor immediately went to

pull Rhodes back to calm his team down and his teammate down. Because he left

the bench, Taylor was ejected but for Lawson he couldn't have been more proud.

"The effort of Nathaniel Taylor is amazing. He does a lot of things that

people don't see. He is our leader," Lawson said. "Before the game he had

a team meeting and he told the guys to not give up."

Rhodes led the Crimson Wave with 21 points while Scott and Rassoull combined for

29 points while Dazmond Starke led the Springers with 13 points.

• Court Wills can be reached at cwills@progress-index.com

Petersburg 16 8 18 23 — 65

Highland Springs 12 3 14 26 — 55

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