In a battle of Virginia powers, Knights outlast VBC Hawks

Date: November 12, 2008 at 18:07

The Norfolk Knights avenged a semi-final loss in the Virginia state championships to eventual state titleist VBC and won the showdown of 2007 national champions (VBC won the 10th grade, Div. I National Title in 2007)defeating the VBC Hawks 57-56 in the semi-finals of the USSSA Gold Division National Championships.
Alonzo Holmes scored the last 4 points in a game that ended with the Knights going on a 7-0 run to turn back the Hawks.
The Hawks led 56-50 with :58 to play when the Knights turned up the defensive pressure and demonstrated the poise offensively that had allowed them to pull out numerous come from behind wins this season.
In the dramatic final fifty-eight seconds, Brian Daniels buried a three pointer on an inbounds play to cut the VBC lead to three. On the defensive end, the Knights turned a double team into a steal and Alonzo Holmes converted with a short jumper to cut the lead to a single point with :31 to play. The Knights applied more defensive intensity and, after knocking the ball out of bounds four times, finally got a steal at mid court by Alonzo Holmes who was then fouled immediately as the clocked winded down inside 15 seconds to play. Holmes hit both free throws to put the Knights in front by 1 with just 12 seconds left. The Hawks failed to score again and were forced to foul giving the Knights another chance to add to the lead with :06 to play. The Knights missed the front end of a 1 and 1 giving the Hawks breathing room and setting up a dramatic finish.
A Kevin Lewis block of an inbounds pass attempt turned back the first of three furious inbounds efforts by VBC. Tracy Elliott batted another attempt away and the final effort, a shot attempt was blocked by Tim Burns to secure the Knights gut wrenching win.
Guards Brian Daniels and Kevin Lewis led the way with 14 points each while Holmes added 12 points. Relentless man to man defense from Kevin Lewis on VBC shooting star Michael Glover limited the Hawks offensive star to just 8 points in the game, he had been averaging 21 points for the tournament. The win avenged an early June loss to the Hawks 56-52 in the Virginia State Championships.
Scoring: Daniels 14, Lewis 14, Holmes 12, T. Burns 8, Elliott 6, Cooper 3.