by Lisa Hinton-Valdrighi
Colonial Beach’s Lamar Lucas stuck with Lancaster’s James Coleman, hands in his face, move for move, step for step for the final minute of last Friday’s tie game at LHS. Then Coleman faked right and Lucas bit, opening a quick look for Coleman.
And that’s all the senior forward needed, a quick look at a long three-point shot that left his hands at the buzzer and got the roll to lift Lancaster over Colonial Beach, 57-54, in varsity boys basketball.
Lancaster took some forced shots and couldn’t get the balls to drop early, to trail by ten, 23-13, early in the second quarter. The Red Devils went on a 7-3 run to cut the Drifter’s lead to 26-20 with three minutes to play in the half and found themselves down by only three with six seconds left. Lancaster forced a Colonial Beach turnover and put up a three-pointer at the buzzer that just missed to end the half down, 31-28.
Coleman came up with a steal and lay-in and Martez Davis hit a jumper to pull Lancaster within two, 37-35. Lancaster’s Christian Sutton’s lay-up on a steal tied the contest at 39-39 and a three-pointer by Darius Reed gave LHS its first lead since the first quarter. The Devils ended the third up 44-41 and the two teams traded shots for the first six minutes of the fourth to bring up another tie, 54-54, with 1:29 to go. Lancaster went to a slow down offense working the ball around to take the final shot. After two-time outs, a missed LHS shot and an offensive rebound, Coleman found himself in the hot spot under pressure by Lucas and looking for a shot or a clear pass to get the ball inside. He let the ball fly at the buzzer for the win.
Coleman, who scored seven of Lancaster’s 13 in the fourth quarter, had the game-high 19 points. Lancaster had three double digit scorers, including Davis and Reed, who scored 11 points each, but got scoring from only six players on the night.
Tejahn Whiting scored 17 points to lead Colonial Beach and Lucas finished with 10.
Lancaster 84
Charles City 36
In other games, the Devils defeated Charles City by 48 points last Wednesday, holding the Panthers to single digit scoring in three quarters.
Lancaster jumped to a 22-6 lead in the first quarter and cruised to an 84-36 win over Charles City with three players finishing in double digits. Davis scored 10 points in the second quarter and finished with 17 to lead LHS.
Charles City’s Ray Crump led all scorers with 18 points.
Coleman, who finished with 12 points, scored 10 in the third quarter when Lancaster blew open a 44-25 halftime lead with a 26-4 run and held the Panthers to four free throws, including two each by Crump and Charles Brown. Lancaster led 70-29 after three quarters.
Dwayne Ball also spread out 12 points for Lancaster, which got scoring from 12 different players.
W & L 50
Lancaster 45
Washington & Lee used a 32-24 run in the second half to overcome a first-half deficit and squeak by Lancaster, 50-45, last Tuesday. The Eagles trailed 21-18 at the half but took a one-point lead after a 13-9 third quarter. W&L outscored Lancaster by four in the fourth with DJ Reed scoring all eight of his points in the fourth. John Day put up five points of his team-high 10 points and CJ Johnson scored four of his nine.
Lancaster got off to a slow start, hitting only three times from the floor with Coleman sinking a three-pointer and Henderson and Jamil Redmond sinking a field goal each.
W&L held all of Lancaster’s top scorers to single digits with Davis leading with nine points. Calvin Henderson and Ball scored eight each.
Lancaster is scheduled to host Rappahannock tomorrow, January 13, and Middlesex on Saturday, January 14.
