Virginia Academy 1st Year Champs

Virginia Academy won the VISAA D3 title in their 1st year of organized basketball defeating Amelia Academy 54-51. Simon Ejike-Obinna scored 15 points and hit two big free throws with four seconds remaining to give his team the win.

We knew we wouldn't face anything tougher than we did up in the DC Beltway," Charles Bushrod said. " We have played a tough schedule and we knew they would play aggressive. We wanted to stay with them in the 1st half and make adjustments in the second half."

Ejike-Obinna was big down the stretch converting an offensive rebound for two and retrieving an errant 3-pointer with four seconds to go and his time up by one. he made both free throws to give Virginia Academy a 54-51 lead.

Virginia Academy opened the game on an 8-0 run and led 18-11 with 1:45 to go before the half. Both teams seem to feel the affects of playing back-to-back State games as the score was only 18-16 at halftime.

"We win with our defense,' Virginia Academy Bushrod said. "We trusts in our bigs. Sometime our guards try to block shots but we just want them to come inside."

The pace picked up in the 2nd half especially from Virginia Academy point guard Jahlil Jenkins who scored 13 points in the quarter to help his team to a 39-33 lead after three quarters.

Amelia Academy fought back and took the lead (46-45) on a layup from Trevor Lewis with 2:51 remaining. Jenkins nailed a big three but Darryl Anderson matched it with a triple to tie the score at 49.