NOVA's Steve Pierre appears happy to make a dunk in the January 14 game versus Lord Fairfax CC at Annandale. Photo by: Kama Storie

By Arch Scurlock
Sports Columnist

The Jan. 14 game for the Northern Virginia Community College men’s basketball team turned out to be the game that most players dream of as NOVA scored 124 points — 70 points in the second half — whooping Lord Fairfax Community College 124-84.

The game was played with many fast breaks and layups, often following turnovers and steals.

The beginning of the game turned out to be a good indicator of how it would play out because NOVA found that it could easily penetrate the porous Lord Fairfax defense for close shots. NOVA scored the first 17 points before Lord Fairfax finally made a basket. NOVA upped the lead to as many as 21 points before leading at the half by 17, 54-37.

NOVA’s defense committed relatively few fouls and did a good job, several times stopping Lord Fairfax from getting off a shot in the allotted 35 seconds. Steve Pierre especially played well in the first half, as all four of his baskets were dunks. Chris Lewis scored 13 points in the half, and Chris Jones had 11.

The second half saw the tempo increase even more. NOVA continued to play aggressively, forcing turnovers and gaining more steals. However, this also resulted in more fouls and sometimes easier baskets for Lord Fairfax.

At the other end, though, NOVA was having increased success. Jones and Lewis were again having strong halves, and new player Theo Spaulding came off the bench to score 11, all in the second half.

Some of the Lord Fairfax players also played well during the second half. For instance, J. Crawford had 13 points and Carter had 15, including 11 of 11 foul shots.

NOVA’s efficiency in gaining close shots is shown by their 51 field goals in the game, only two of which were 3-pointers. For the game, nine of NOVA’s 10 players scored, with six in double figures. Jones led with 26, followed by Lewis with 21 and Duncan Jones and Pierre each with 19. With the win, NOVA’s Virginia Community College System record rose to 2-0 and its overall record to 5-8.

NOVA’s coach, Mike Fitzmaurice, had restrained enthusiasm for his team’s performance, saying, “We’re happy that we were able to score so much. We had three new players… We’re unhappy in that our defense was very lax, a lot of fouls, they made maybe close to 30 to 40 foul shots, which is a lot of points… So overall, it was a B-plus, maybe an A-minus game. But certainly on defense, it was less than an adequate game. But overall, we feel good. We won, we’re happy, and the new guys played well.”

Other results from previous games include the following:

Dec. 10 NOVA 94, Harcum College (NY) 98
Dec. 11 NOVA 64, Monroe CC (NY) 97
Dec. 18 NOVA 78 Germanna CC (VCCS) 55
Dec. 21 NOVA 75 Howard CC (MD) 77
Jan. 7 NOVA 83, Cecil Col (MD) 94
Jan. 21 NOVA 83, Tidewater CC 78
Jan. 22 NOVA 82, Thomas Nelson CC 64
Jan. 26 NOVA 63, Prince George’s CC 76
Jan. 28 NOVA 88, Richard Bland College 76

NOVA is 5-0 in the VCCS through January and appears to be among the strongest of the teams.

NOVA guard Chris Jones goes up for a short shot near the basket versus Lord Fairfax CC in the January 14 game at Annandale. Photo by: Kama Storie

By: Arch Scurlock

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