Northern Virgina College Basketball

NOVA men play in the TCC Holiday Tournament this weekend Nov 26-27

editor in chief — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 18:22:56 +0000

NOVA men play in the TCC Holiday Tournament this weekend Nov 26-27 at the Signet Family Life Center at the Mount Lebanon Christian Academy in Chesapeake VA. Tip-off Sat 3:00 PM and Sun at 1:00 PM

NOVA Raiders Men to play Richard Bland College for the first time at home Sat Nov 19

editor in chief — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 20:38:20 +0000

NOVA Raiders Men to play Richard Bland College newest member of the VCCS for the first time at home Sat Nov 19 at the Ernst Center Gym with a 1:30 Tip-off.

Come, bring a friend and your “outdoor” voice. Admission is FREE

NOVA Raiders to Play Richard Bland College Sat Nov 19th at 1:30 at Home

editor in chief — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 20:25:10 +0000

NOVA Raiders Men to play Richard Bland College newest member of the VCCS for the first time at home Sat Nov 19 at the Ernst Center Gym with a 1:30 Tip-off.

Come, bring a friend and you “outdoor” voice. Admission is FREE

Free Throw ( How to by Michael Jordan )

editor in chief — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 22:06:12 +0000

Michael Jordan

NOVA Players had a significant role at University Virginia ( Wise Campus)

editor in chief — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 02:06:26 +0000

Three NOVA players helped UVA Wise Men’s Basketball Program win 11 games in their transition season to NAIA D1. Mark Phillips (25), Sam Eligwe (12) and Jermaine Wright (24) had very successful careers at NOVA before transferring to UVA Wise. Mark and Sam graduated. Jermaine will be back to play his senior year this season.
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NOVA vs TCC highlights on Youtube

editor in chief — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 23:24:29 +0000

This looks like the Rich Waldron ESPN highlight film

Cut and paste this into your browser:

Men’s Basketball Caps Amazing Season With Win

editor in chief — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 14:59:08 +0000

28 March 2011
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.

NOVA at VCCS Tournament 2011

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

NOVA men’s basketball wins first state championship

editor in chief — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 16:39:53 +0000

CHESAPEAKE, VA (March 6, 2011) – Northern Virginia Community College defeated Thomas Nelson Community College 78-71 on Sunday afternoon to capture the 2011 Virginia Community College System men’s basketball championship held at Oscar Smith High School in Chesapeake, Virginia.

NOVA Team Picture at 2011 VCCS Tournament

Trailing 17-4 in the opening minutes, NOVA rallied to secure the College’s first ever VCCS Basketball Championship. TNCC led 42-41 at halftime.

“We certainly made it a dramatic finish,” said fifth-year head coach Mike Fitzmaurice. “However, I am proud of the way we responded with our backs to the wall. We didn’t overreact and kept our composure. ”

NOVA (26-5) closed out the season with 22 consecutive victories and completed the VCCS regular season schedule with a perfect 10-0 record. NOVA’s last setback was to Cecil (MD) College, currently ranked sixth nationally by the National Junior College Athletic Association, back on December 2.

“This team never felt the pressure of the winning streak,” said Fitzmaurice. “Emotion can be your worst enemy or your best friend. Fortunately, it was our friend this year. We played the entire season with an every possession matters mentality and it certainly paid off.”

Tomas Camera led five scorers in double figures with 17 points for NOVA. Westley Ford added 14 points, and Rich Waldron netted 12 points. Bobby Mott and Jonathan Ball each contributed 10 points.

TNCC was paced by Melvine Horne’s 15 points.

Rich Waldron MVP and Coach Fitzmaurice

Waldron (Edison High School/Alexandria, VA) was selected as the 2011 VCCS Tournament Most Valuable Player. Camera (T.C. Williams High School/Alexandria, VA) and Ford (Paul VI Catholic High School/Arlington, VA) were named to the all-tournament team.

NOVA reached the championship game by defeating Germanna Community College, 93-54, in Friday’s quarterfinal game and then defeated Lord Fairfax Community College, 98-84, in the semifinal on Saturday afternoon.

The NOVA women’s basketball team fell to tournament host Tidewater Community College, 57-47, in the championship game. Kimberly Walton (Gar-field High School/Woodbridge, VA) and April Neal (Wakefield High School/Arlington, VA) were named to the women’s VCCS All-Tournament Team.

TNCC (71) – DaVonte Jackson, 3; Sean Johnson, 14; Melvine Horne, 15; Darnell Berry, 6; Tyrone Berry, 14; Dana Jackson, 12; Danta Cooper, 7.
NOVA (78) – Gavin Peterson, 7; Westley Ford, 14; Bobby Mott, 10; Jonathan Ball, 10; Dominque Goodwin, 4; Tomas Camera, 17; Richard Waldron, 12; Jonathan Gaston, 5.
HALFTIME: TNCC 42; NOVA 41
RECORDS: NOVA 26-5; TNCC 11-6

NOVA Raiders Finish the Season 23-5

editor in chief — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 20:18:33 +0000

The NOVA Raiders ends the season with the best season record ever with 23 wins and 5 loses. All of the losses were to national ranked teams. The Raiders were 10-0 in the VCCS and earned the number one seed in the Virginia State Tournament March 4-6 in Chesapeake Virginia.

In the final games of the season NOVA beat:
Germanna CC 113-63
Tidewater CC 106-57
Lord Fairfax CC 101-73
Thomas Nelson CC 80-61

NOVA Beats Southside CC 101-92

editor in chief — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 19:35:00 +0000

Wes Ford and Bobby Mott lead the effort with 28 and 22 respectively Three other Raiders in double figures
Waldron 14, Goodwin 11 and Camera 10