Guard Gavio Peterson’s three-point shot with 11.9 seconds to go broke a second half tie and helped send Northern Virginia Community College to a 67-63 win over the Howard Community College Dragons at Annandale’s Ernst Gym on the evening of Dec. 21.

The first half was a back-and-forth contest between the two teams. NOVA fell behind early with 8-2, then came back to within a point, and then fell behind by nine at 21-12 with about eight minutes to go. With four points by Westley Ford, NOVA tied the score at 21-21 with 6:30 to go as it scored nine points in a row.

Another six points in a row gave NOVA its biggest lead of the half at 27-21 with just under five minutes to go. Despite having given up 15 points in a row, Howard came back to tie the score at 27-27 with three minutes to go. For the rest of the half, the score stayed close, with Gavio Peterson scoring with a few seconds remaining to give NOVA a 36-33 halftime lead.

The beginning of the second half saw NOVA look like it was going to run away with the game as it got its fast break working. In the first two-and-a-half minutes, NOVA was up 44-33 before Howard called a time out. NOVA kept a big lead at 52-39 with about 15 minutes to go as 6-foot-7-inch center Tomas Camera, normally not a big scorer but taking advantage of his height and bulk advantage over Howard players, grabbed two rebounds under the basket and put in the follow-up shots.

Howard propelled itself back into the game by scoring 10 straight points to close within three at 52-49. With 10 minutes to go, NOVA was up by 56-51, but Howard fought back to tie the score at 59-59 at the 4:52 mark as NOVA went quiet.

Who would pull out the win in the last five minutes? Howard went up 61-60 at 3:15, then NOVA tied it. But then Howard went up 63-61 before a Peterson shot tied it 63-63 with two minutes to go. NOVA’s Javel Booker committed a charging foul at 1:20 and NOVA committed a turnover at the 50-second mark, but Howard was also unable to score.

NOVA regained the ball with 40.9 seconds to go and patiently worked the ball around until Peterson nailed the critical three-pointer straight out from the basket with 11.9 seconds left to give NOVA the lead at 66-63.

Howard, perhaps out of time-outs, seemed to panic and took a hurried three-point shot that missed badly. They then had to foul NOVA, and Booker made one of the foul shots with 4.9 seconds remaining as NOVA won the thriller 67-63.

For the game, Peterson led NOVA scorers with 18 points, including several critical shots, Booker had 17, while Rich Waldron added 10, and Tomas Camera eight. Angelo Aden led Howard with 15.

With the win and its two wins the previous weekend at the Anne Arundel CC Tournament over the Community College of Allegheny County (PA) 82-64 and Potomac State College (WV) 78-72, NOVA has now won five in a row to go to 9-5. Howard was looking for its second win in a row but fell to 3-7 for the year.

NOVA, which at times during this game looked like a good basketball team which gives it a promising outlook for its 2011 games, is off until Jan. 11 when it begins playing more of the Virginia community colleges in the VCCS as well as a number of Maryland colleges. Its next home game is Jan. 24 at Annandale at 7 p.m., versus the College of Southern Maryland.

By: Arch Scurlock

Stay updated by liking us on Facebook or following us on Twitter.