NOVA's Gavin Peterson goes up for short shot versus Lord Fairfax Community College in the VCCS semi-finals. Photo by: Arch Scurlock

The NOVA men’s basketball team finished a fantastic season by capturing its first–ever Virginia Community College System tournament in Chesapeake March 4 through 6 at the spacious Oscar Smith High School gym. Its three wins there gave it 22 straight wins, as it finished 26-5.
NOVA had won its last four games in the regular season, all at home, by an average of 37 points, but it met stiffer challengers in its last two tournament games, as predicted by Coach Mike Fitzmaurice. NOVA went into the tournament as the number one seed based on its 10-0 VCCS record during the regular season.
In its first tournament game on Friday, it overwhelmed the VCCS winless (0-14) Germanna Community College team 93-54, leading at halftime 44-21. NOVA had five players score in double figures, led by center Tomas Camera with 19 points and 14 rebounds and Rich Waldron and Jonathan Gaston with 12 points each.
Its semifinal game on Saturday afternoon against Lord Fairfax Community College (8-5) saw Lord Fairfax employ a zone defense in an attempt to slow down NOVA’s drives to the basket.
Lord Fairfax went out to a 10-4 lead in the first two minutes before NOVA countered to lead 11-10, including five points by guard Tommy Mott. After a brief NOVA lead, Lord Fairfax went on a 12-2 run to take a ten point lead at 30-20 with seven minutes remaining.
NOVA finally retook the lead at 38-37 with two minutes to go and led at the half 40-39. Mott led the NOVA first half scoring with 13, followed by Westley Ford’s 12.
Much of the second half saw the lead go back and forth. In the first 13 minutes, NOVA’s biggest lead was 55-51 with 15 minutes left. With just under seven minutes to go, Mott made a three pointer to give NOVA its biggest lead to that point at 73-68, causing a Lord Fairfax timeout.
Lord Fairfax came back within one point several times over the next five minutes, but was not able to take the lead.

VCCS Basketball Tournament Champion NOVA. / Photo by: Arch Scurlock

With 4:40 remaining and leading 78-77, NOVA went on a scoring binge just at the right time, outscoring Lord Fairfax 20-7 for a 98-84 win. Mott made a critical basket with two seconds left on the shot clock to up the lead to 85-80 with two minutes to go, and Waldron had 6 points and Jonathan Ball 7 during the surge.
“We played very poorly in the first half,” Coach Fitzmaurice related. “We played poorly the first 10 minutes of the second half. It was a 2-3 point game before we played excellent basketball for four minutes, but it was the right four minutes,” he added.
“[Lord Fairfax] played better than they would normally play. Their players made some shots they would not normally make. They really played with more intensity. They wanted it worse than we did. It shows that a team with more depth, more ball players, can be on an equal footing with a team that wants to play harder. And they did. They played very hard.”
For the game, NOVA had six players score in double figures, led by Mott with 21, Waldron with 20 and Ball with 16.
The championship game against Thomas Nelson Community College (9-5) of Hampton took place on Sunday afternoon. Nelson had progressed to the final by beating Southside Virginia CC on Saturday in an exciting contest 108-106 and Tidewater on Friday 94-90 in overtime.
Nelson, which had lost by 19 points to NOVA in the final regular season game, also started out in a zone defense. It seemed that every shot that Nelson was throwing up went in during the first four minutes, as it took leads of 15-2 and 17-4. Camera was the lone player producing for NOVA, rebounding and scoring its first five points.
NOVA took a timeout after two minutes with the score 9-1, but it had little immediate effect.
Nelson began missing some shots and had some turnovers while NOVA finally began scoring. With nine minutes to go it was within five at 24-19, and NOVA finally took the lead with 2:04 to go on a Gavin Peterson 3-pointer, making it 35-34. Nelson came back to take a slim halftime lead at 42-41, but NOVA was glad to have survived its huge early deficit.
For NOVA, Camera led with 9 points while Mott added 7.
The game was a fierce struggle in the second half. NOVA led for much of the first 12 minutes, but only by small margins. Its largest lead was five at 52-47 with 12 minutes to go. After Nelson took a one point lead at 55-54, NOVA’s Ford scored six straight points to give NOVA a critical lead at 60-55 with eight minutes to go.
NOVA’s lead then bounced between three and seven points and was at six when Nelson made two free throws with 53 seconds remaining to cut the NOVA lead to four at 72-68. An ill-conceived alley-oop and an unsuccessful drive to the basket coupled with two uncharacteristic free throw misses by Waldron kept Nelson in the game, but they were unable to take advantage of the miscues, scoring only four points in the final minute. Waldron made four straight free throws in the last 15 seconds for NOVA as they came away with a hard-fought win 78-71 and the championship.
“I’m real happy we won. Both teams we played in the semis and the finals played their best games of the season ‘cause we played both and beat ‘em both. And it forced our guys to raise their games. And we did. That’s the way it should be. I don’t know how it happens, but every time you get into these tournaments, the regular season doesn’t seem to matter. They’re playing with such emotion, so fired up, they have everything to win, nothing to lose. And that’s the way Thomas Nelson plays. I take my hat off to them,” Coach Fitzmaurice remarked. “We were a little sloppy and got behind 17-4 and that was a big hole. We shot around 50 percent at the foul line in the first half… But otherwise, did we win? It’s a great game!”
Referring to NOVA’s strong play in the last five minutes, Coach Fitzmaurice noted, “Usually that’s what happens at the end of games. Our guys pick their game up more. And it’s happened all year. We pick up 10 points in the last few minutes of the game.”
NOVA’s double figure scorers included Camera with 16, Ford with 14, Waldron and Ball with 12 and Mott with 10.
Besides winning the men’s VCCS tournament first-place plaque, NOVA players came away with a number of honors. Waldron’s overall play and 15 ppg average in the tournament earned him the tournament MVP award. All-tournament NOVA players included Waldron and Camera. All conference VCCS players from the regular season included Waldron and Ford.
NOVA rival Southside Virginia coach admitted during the tournament, “NOVA’s got a good team this year.”

By: Arch Scurlock

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