Timberlake shocks Lynchburg Christian

It was a night of upsets in the seventh annual Holiday Classic basketball tournament involving four Lynchburg private schools at Timberlake Christian Academy Friday night. Virginia Episcopal School's inside game proved too much for Holy Cross' 3-point shooting as the Bishops defeated the ninth-ranked Gaels 61-58, while Timberlake defeated Lynchburg Christian Academy, 73-58. The tournament continues at TCS Saturday night with Holy Cross (4-1) meeting LCA (4-4) at 6:15, and VES playing TCS for the title at 8. Neither TCS (4-2) nor Holy Cross have won the tournament; LCA has won four of the previous titles including the one last year, while VES (2-1) has captured the crown twice.

The VES-Holy Cross game was a cliffhanger from start to finish, with seldom more than two or three points separating the two clubs. Holy Cross rode the 3-point shooting of Brian Lightner to a 31-26 halftime lead, as Lightner hit on five of his six 3-pointers in the first half. The Gaels lost their three-point edge after intermission as VES kept working under the baskets throughout the game, and it paid off in the second half. Chad Carter and Levester Thompson, VES' 6-5 seniors, gave the Bishops control of the boards and were the team's leading scorers; Carter had 22 points and Thompson 16, while Seymour Daffeh added 14. Lightner took game scoring honors with 26 points on his six 3-pointers, while Preston Snell had 13 and Lucas Lesniak 11. "We succeeded in doing what we wanted to do," said VES coach Bob Leake. "We knew we couldn't control their 3-point shooting, but we didn't want to give them a second shot around the goals, and we did a good job in doing that," he added, praising the rebounding work of Thompson and Carter. "We had nothing on the boards," agreed Holy Cross coach John Laneve. "We took too many bad shots. But they had a well disciplined ball club and we didn't play disciplined ball. We are not ready yet, but we generally come on strong at the end of the season." Laneve also noted the Gaels lost out to VES at the foul line, where VES sank eight of 11 free throws to Holy Cross' seven of 15.

In the LCA-TCS game, the Tornadoes took an early lead and kept pulling away from the Bulldogs for its first win over LCA since 1988. The game was very physical and marred by numerous fouls; forty-four were called during the game, 27 against LCA, which never recovered from an erratic start. "We worked hard for this," said TCS coach Tim Hill, enjoying his team's second trip to the finals in the seven years the tournament has been held. "They knew what they had to do and they did it. We also got good leadership from Mike Kelly, Matt Belton and Marty Chandler." Travis Stickle also gave the Tornadoes considerable help around the boards. Dale Smith led LCA scoring with 11 points, while Kelly and Tommy Middleton had 19 each for the Tornadoes. Belton added 15.

By Calvin Porter, Staff writer
The News & Advance