Odds? What Odds?

The odds were slim. Some might say none.

Collegiate beating Trinity Episcopal in boys basketball?  Not a chance.

Sure, the Cougars are much improved. They’ve definitely come of age. Their record, 16-7, going into tonight’s Prep League game on the Titans’ home floor was their best in seven years. And they’d won eight of their last nine games.
 
The home team was 26-1, though. It’s ranked second in the Times-Dispatch Top 10 and the VISAA poll. It owns two victories – by 6 and 21 – over the Cougars already this year. Its only loss came by two to L.C. Bird, the No. 1 squad in Central Virginia. And, oh yeah, it has three Division I players. They go 6-5, 6-8, and 6-9.
 
So why get on the bus? To compete. That’s why. To win. That’s why.
 
Crazy? Not at all. Odds are only numbers. There’s always a chance.
 
OK, so Trinity won 70-60. But the Cougars competed. Man, did they compete!
 
“I’m really proud of our guys,” said Collegiate coach Del Harris. “We had a game plan, and we stuck to it. Trinity’s a very good team. There’s a talent gap, but we pride ourselves on being a team and playing defense and hustling. Our motto is Faith, Fundamentals, and Finish. That’s what we did tonight.”
 
From the outset, the Cougars stood fast against the Titans’ well-tuned man-to-man and a variety of pressure defensive looks.
 
“We were going to take our time and get in triple-threat…pass the ball a little bit and just take high quality shots,” Harris added. “We did a good job of that early. We wanted to mix the defenses up, play a little bit of zone, a little bit of junk defense.”
 
Trinity led 14-11 after a quarter, 37-27 at the break, and 46-35 after three quarters. In the first 36 seconds of the fourth, the Titans’ Jason Wade and Tink Boyd converted back-to-back turnovers into points, and when Harris called time at 7:26, the home team held a 50-35 advantage.
        
Game over? No way.
 
“We knew we’d have to come over here and fight,” said 6-5 senior Evan Justice. “Coach talked to us all week about, we’ve got to compete, play tough defense, be physical, go for 50-50 balls hard. You have to play with the mindset that we’re the same, we’re better. We did that tonight.”
 
With Harris substituting liberally and strategically, the Cougars pressed full-court (1-2-1-1) and played with a nothing-to-lose, everything-to-gain abandon deep into the final period.
 
At 1:49, Jackson Watkins drained a 3-pointer from the right wing to cut the Titans’ lead to 62-55, but Harris’s guys could get no closer.
 
Still, with the outcome effectively decided and some in the crowd heading to the exits, they pressed and drove hard to the basket until the final buzzer.
 
“Collegiate had a great game plan,” said Trinity coach Rick Hamlin. “They came in with a lot of confidence and played really, really hard. We were expecting a tough game. We didn’t think it would be easy. Clearly it wasn’t. They didn’t back down at all. They were really aggressive at both ends of the court. They really made us work for everything.”
 
Jack Wyatt scored 18 points for Collegiate. Justice added 12 (including 10-of-10 from the foul line) and Ayinde Budd 11.  Wade led Trinity with 19 points. Armando Bacot added 18, Matt Nelson 14, and James Madison-bound Zach Jacobs 12.
        
Afterwards, with heads high, the Cougars walked to their bus for the short trip across the river.
 
“We all play basketball because we love it and we have fun doing it,” said senior forward Berkeley Geho. “It’s a great opportunity to play with these guys every day. We all know that the time’s limited that we can do that.
        
“That’s definitely a huge motivation for everyone. You don’t really know how much fun you’ve had until it’s over and look back. You have to take care of the day, one day at a time.”
         -- Weldon Bradshaw
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