O’Connell is VIST Semi-Final Bound

Ron Bailey, Publisher

March 1, 20006 – The Bishop O’Connell Knights are Petersburg, VA bound, courtesy of their 57-51 Virginia Independent School Tournament (Division I) victory over the St. Stephens/St. Agnes (SSA) Saints. After the victory this home court victory Tuedsay night, the Knights are now poised to play Norfolk Collegiate, 3:30 pm at Richard Bland College on Friday.

Jason Colenda led the Knights with 18, while two other Knights named Jason – Clark and Burns – each supplied 13. Andre Hunter scored 12 points for the Saints. Ramone Smith added 11, and Jeremy Bull supplied eight points.

The game was a nip and tuck affair during the first half, with two plays epitomizing its competitiveness. At the end of both the first and second quarters, a buzzer beating shot closed the period, and the score. SSA’s Hunter hit a ¾ court length shot to end the first, thereby narrowing their opponents lead to 12-11, while O’Connell’s Colenda sank a long two point jump off draw and kick action, to close the second and create a 22-all tie at halftime.

The Knight’s ability to execute dribbling to the basket, and kicking the ball out to open shooters was a staple in their attack all evening long. Colenda was often the prime beneficiary of this tactic, revealing after the contest, “We work on it everyday in practice. Drive and pitch. Drive and pitch. It’s a drill we do everyday”. He believes that their spread offense utilizing a “four guard lineup with the big guy working more in the high post area” aids this desire to penetrate and pass to open shooters.

O’Connell’s coach, Joe Wootten commented that “In the first half, we came out and took shots off of one or two passes”, while in the second half “we made them off the fifth or sixth pass”. The shots still came off of dribble/ball penetration, but in the second stanza “they were more at our pace".

During the second half, Wootten and the Knights were able to build a lead that at after a Colenda three pointer in the third became 31-23 and ballooned to 51-39 late in the fourth quarter.

Both good foul shooting and defense of SSA’s formidable high pick and roll game contributed heavily to O’Connell’s lead expansion. Wootten specifically applauded Burns and Rockwell Moody (7 points) for their foul line prowess. Moody, who converted all four of his foul shots down the stretch (he had seven points in the game), more or less epitomized the Knight’s clutch charity stripe shooting.

SSA’s coach, Kevin McLinton indicated after the game “We had to find a way to get the ball”, as they were down and needed to score. Given that reality, fouling was a necessity.

McLinton shared he expected O’Connell’s defensive game plan to stop their high pick and roll action, which included charging (or jumping) SSA’s players hard when engaged in it. “We knew that going in” he said, “We didn’t do a very good job of being able to find the open man and being able to knock shots down”.

Wootten was pleased with his team’s play in this regard, indicating “I thought we did a nice job on that”, though Hunter’s early shooting success was problematic. According to Wootten, the Knights “We face a lot of that (high pick and roll) during the year.

As to be expected, the Saints were disheartened after the loss, having completed their season with an 18-9 record, and graduating seven seniors. Hunter, one of those seniors lamented “We had our opportunities, but O’Connell is a good team, you can’t take anything from them…Unfortunately things didn’t go our way this time”.

Bull, a junior, stated the loss was “Hard…because we don’t have anymore tournaments, so we’re finished”. He feels that “I think towards the end of the season, that is when we started playing together…that is when we started playing to our potential”.

The 18-10 Knights, on the other hand, as presented above, live to play another day. They were also pleased with their performance against SSA. Colenda commented, “It was a good win. We came out flat at first, but we shook it off”, and “Anytime you can play for a championship (in Petersburg) it’s exciting.

Wootten doesn’t expect his team’s travel to southern Virginia to be an issue, since “One of the things is we’ve traveled there before this year, so we’re kind of used to it. One of the things I really like about going down there” for the VIST semis and finals, “is a chance to win a title. You get to put a banner up in the gym and will remember it forever (if the title is won)”.

Good luck to the Knights this week, as well as the SSA Saints in their future endeavors. Both teams have represented Northern Virginia quite well.

Burns at the Line

Hunter (10) Defended by Burns

Wootten (foregroud) and McLinton

The Knight's Victory Procession