Thomas Camera goes up for shot between two College of Southern Maryland players. / Photo by: Arch Scurlock

The Northern Virginia Community College men’s basketball team started its second-semester season in strong fashion, winning its first four games to run its winning streak to nine and raising its season record to 13-5.

The semester break saw the team add two strong players in forward S. Dolman and guard Bobby Mott.

During the weekend of Jan. 15 and 16, NOVA journeyed to Tidewater for two games, where previously they have had mixed success. This time they beat Thomas Nelson Community College on Saturday, 71-62, and then beat Tidewater Community College on Sunday 92-70.

The team then traveled to cold Winchester for a Friday night game on Jan. 21 to play a much-improved Lord Fairfax Community College squad.

At the start, NOVA went out to a temporary lead, but Lord Fairfax replied and took a 16-12 lead. NOVA then scored nine straight points, including two three-pointers and a foul shot by newcomer Dolman to take a 21-16 lead with nine minutes to go.

NOVA kept a small lead for about five minutes, but Lord Fairfax came back to tie the game at 31 with four minutes to go. NOVA then took off on a tear, scoring nine straight points, six of them by center Tomas Camera, to go up 40-31. A final Lord Fairfax shot left NOVA with a 40-33 halftime lead.

NOVA increased its lead at the beginning of the second half to 44-37, but Lord Fairfax scored nine of the next 11 to make it a tie game at 46, bringing about a NOVA time out with 14 minutes to go.

The scoring then went back and forth until Lord Fairfax grabbed a 57-52 lead with just under nine minutes to go.

Now it was NOVA’s turn to come back, as they took a 60-59 lead with six minutes to go on a three-point play by Westley Ford. In the next two minutes, NOVA built up a 70-63 lead, the last basket being a three-pointer by Gavin Peterson.

Lord Fairfax was not done yet, though, as they whittled the lead down to 70-68 with about two minutes to go. Then, as has happened several times in the past, guard Gavin Peterson rose to the occasion, making four foul shots sandwiched around a missed uncontested dunk by Ford to give NOVA a hard fought 74-68 victory.

“We have a very good zone defense that packs it in. We felt we played OK defensively. We needed to improve offensively. We needed to play better in the second half. We also had too many turnovers — 18 in the first half, maybe down to 10 in the second — 28 turnovers [which is] still unacceptable, with 15 missed foul shots,” Coach Mike Fitzmaurice summarized.

“The game would have been a lot different if we had done the fundamentals. So, we’re happy to have a win. If we’re playing against the best competition out there, [and] we have 25-plus turnovers and miss too many missed foul shots, we’re not going to win games. So, we’re happy. It’s better than it could have been.”

Looking at the statistics afterwards, the decisive difference in the game was free-throw shooting. NOVA made 25 of 37 or 68  percent overall, with Ford making eight of 10, while Lord Fairfax only made 14 of 33, or 42 percent, a difference of 11 points.

For NOVA, Ford led its scorers with 20 while Peterson added 15 and Rich Waldron 12. Lord Fairfax players Kenny Griffin and Tylon Raymor led them with 15 each.

With the win, NOVA raised its record to 12-5, 4-0 in the Virginia Community College System conference. Lord Fairfax fell to 7-3, 3-3 in the VCCS.

NOVA’s next game came up quickly, a home game at Annandale versus the College of Southern Maryland on Monday, Jan. 24. With CSM coming in with a 2-14 record, though having won two of its previous three, it looked like it could be an easy game. But CSM gave a strong effort.

NOVA seemed intent on driving to the basket, though with limited success. However, it played well enough overall to take a 78-63 win. Every time NOVA looked like it might run away with the game, CSM would score a few baskets to get back within a threatening range.

In the first half, NOVA went out to leads of 12-4 and 16-8 before CSM came back to within 29-24 by scoring six of eight with seven minutes to go. From there, NOVA went out to an 11-point lead at halftime, 47-36.

For the half for NOVA, Dominique Goodwin had 12, Peterson eight and Jonathan Ball seven as 10 players scored.

In the second half, NOVA kept up leads of 10-15 points and won by 78-63.

With the win, NOVA advanced to 15-5 on the season while CSM fell to 2-15.

NOVA’s next game was held Jan. 29 at Annandale against arch-rival Southside Virginia Community College, the winner of the last two VCCS championships. Both had long winning streaks coming into the game.

By: Arch Scurlock

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