The 2009-2010 NOVA men’s basketball team under coach Mike Fitzmaurice began play on November 4 with a roster of 16 players, including four holdovers from the previous year.

The first game was against the Germantown campus of Montgomery College, ranked as #14 in the National Junior College Division III preseason poll. A six point NOVA halftime advantage didn’t hold up as NOVA succumbed 92-84.

NOVA won its next three games to go to 3-1 before losing to perennial Junior College Division II power Cecil College, ranked as #8 in the preseason poll.

Three wins at the end of the month gave NOVA a 6-2 record for November.

NOVA split its first two games of December to go to 7-3 before playing in a Baltimore City community college tournament in which it dropped three close games, ending 2009 at 7-6. NOVA’s fast-paced offense was averaging 92 points per game, and NOVA scored over 100 points three times. Cordero Holt was the leading scoring at about 19 points per game.

For the second semester, NOVA lost several players, mainly for academic/graduation reasons, including leading scorer Holt, as the roster decreased to ten players. Still, NOVA won its first January game before traveling to arch rival Southside Virginia Community College where it lost 103-92. A rematch at home against the College of Southern Maryland, which NOVA earlier had defeated by 11 points, saw NOVA held to its lowest point total of the year as it lost 80-68, dropping its record to an even 8-8 for the season.

Its home game on January 17 against Virginia Community College System foe Thomas Nelson Community College saw NOVA hang on for an 81-76 win. NOVA led at the half by 41-35 after being behind by as much as 22-29.

NOVA held leads of as much as 13 points in the second half and led by 79-69 with two minutes to go. Thomas Nelson then mounted a furious comeback and trailed by only 79-76 with less than a minute to go. Only a missed Thomas Nelson tap-in kept the lead at three, and then NOVA, after missing two free throws, finally converted two to win 81-76. NOVA went above .500 for the year to 9-8, with a 4-1 record in the VCCS league.

Joe Scorah led NOVA with 20 points, with Jamal Jones adding 19, Brandon Allen 14, and Jemal Fair 13. Jermaine Wright had 4 before suffering a sprained ankle, Dion Romero had 2, and Gerald Smith and Chris Barlow were scoreless.

A. Kemp paced Nelson with 21, followed by B. Lyons with 15. Nelson’s record dropped to 3-3.

NOVA’s schedule continues with eight more games, including six more VCCS contests, before the season ending VCCS conference tournament in Roanoke, March 11-14.

By: Arch Scurlock

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