VES, LCA win tourney openers

The opening night of the Sixth Annual Holiday Classic, featuring the area's private schools, held true to form with Lynchburg Christian Academy and Virginia Episcopal School winning their first-round games. LCA (4-2) and VES (1-1), the only two teams ever to bring home the tournament trophy, meet at 8 tonight in the Vines Center. Holy Cross (2-2), which extended the Bishops into overtime before falling 76-73, meets Timberlake Christian (1-5) in the consolation game at 6:15.

The tourney's opener was a foul-plagued contest, with the majority of the calls going against VES. Holy Cross spent much of the first half at the free-throw line, and at intermission the Gaels enjoyed a 27-5 free-throw-attempt advantage which, for coach John Laneve, presented a unique dilemma. "We didn't have a chance to get our offense going 'cause they were fouling us all the time," said Laneve, adding that his team's 45-19 overall advantage at the line wasn't enough. "It should have been twice that with all the hand-checking they were doing." Laneve felt his squad lost the game at the line, where it connected on just 32 of 45 attempts. "We missed 13 free throws," he said. "I know that's a lot of free throws to shoot, but they were rough ... We did not execute well and we didn't connect at the foul line."

Despite that edge the game managed to stay tight. Sparking the second half for Holy Cross was forward David Ashwell, who scored 14 of his 15 points in the final two quarters and overtime, including a driving layup with seconds left to knot the game at 68 and send it into an extra three minutes. The Bishops' Tom Hodges, who finished with 18 points, opened overtime with a 3-pointer from the corner to put VES ahead to stay, but VES (which made only eight free throws in the game) missed two free throws in the final 16 seconds that could have put the game away. Instead the Bishops had to wait until Holy Cross' Kevin Brady missed a 3-pointer at the buzzer to celebrate. "Holy Cross is a very disciplined, very quick team," VES coach Bob Leake said. "Our lack of game experience and discipline, and the defense that Holy Cross played, made it a tight game." Guard Jeff Cook paced the Bishops with 24 points on several slashing drives to the basket; for Holy Cross, Brady and Vernon Patterson each scored 19.

The night's second game was Lynchburg Christian's for the taking from the tip-off. The Bulldogs opened the contest with an 11-0 run and never looked back. It was the second time these teams had met this season, with LCA also taking the first meeting, 80-59. "I expected the game to be tighter than it was," said LCA coach Richard Gifford. "We knew they had good 3-point shooters and we didn't want to let them shoot open threes." Gifford's fear of open 3-point attempts made him extend his defense, which truly disrupted Timberlake's offense; in addition, LCA's size in the frontcourt let it dominate inside. "They've got too many guns. We were out-manned," said Tornadoes head coach Tim Hall. "They work it inside real well."

Timberlake was outscored 13-2 in the second quarter, with its only bucket coming from forward Matt Anderson, who finished with 11 points. The second-period romp prompted Hall to keep his players on the court for extra shooting practice, rather than the usual retreat to the locker room. "I felt like we weren't getting away from our game-plan, so there was no sense coming back here and going over it," Hall said. "We weren't shooting the ball well." Guard Marty Chandler had 11 points for Timberlake but also missed a multitude of 3-pointers. "He's a good shooter," Hall said of Chandler. "When he's on, nobody minds it."

By Chris Wimmer, Staff writer
The News & Advance