By Allen J. Kha / ScrimmagePlay.com contributor
St. Anne’s-Belfield fell 66-59 to visiting Cape Henry Collegiate (Virginia Beach) Sunday in an out-of-conference and cross-division matchup that had little playoff ramifications. Considering neither team resides in the same division or the same geographical area, both coaches used Sunday’s matchup pitting two of Virginia’s better private school teams to fine-tune their squads.
“[Cape Henry] is Division I, we’re Division II. They have some D-I talent—their guards were Division I-caliber players, and this game was really good for us,” said STAB coach Brian Kent. “It wasn’t a bad type of loss, and we just have to take our game one step further.”
After swapping buckets — and a dunk by Cape Henry’s sophomore forward David Leitao, son of former Virginia men’s basketball coach Dave Leitao — in the first few minutes of the game, the Dolphins took a 6-4 lead with three minutes remaining in the first quarter. Cape Henry didn’t relinquish their lead for the remainder of the game.
The Dolphins closed the first quarter with a 12-10 lead and expanded the lead to 27-22 by halftime. Cape Henry exploited its athletic and size advantages against a smaller STAB team, creating a particularly effective inside-out game. Primary ball-handlers Demetrius Pollard and Devon Hall were able to penetrate through the Saints’ defense, either scoring on their dribble-drives or kicking the ball out to hot-shooting senior forward Connor LaFramboise.
“We like to travel and play really good teams, and STAB is very solid. We had our hands full, and we’re happy to leave with a win,” Cape Henry coach Larry Ward said. “Our inside-out game was good and we used our size, athleticism, and good perimeter players to our advantage.”
The Saints kept the game close and closed Cape Henry’s lead to as close as six points with a minute remaining in the game through the heroic efforts of senior captain Kodie Critzer. Critzer — who dazzled the home crowd with a determination to get to the basketball — led all scorers with 32 points.
“When they got into the zone [defense], it was sort of a weak zone. That gave me room to attack and that’s what I did,” Critzer said. “We were able to stay in the game by getting some of their bigs in foul trouble, and just put a good effort from there.”
Pollard finished the game with 23 points and eight rebounds for Cape Henry. LaFramboise, meanwhile, led the Dolphins with 24 points.
“It was good, everyone played well. Our bigs stepped up and our [offensive execution] was really good. We got shots and made plays. Our performance was maybe an 8 out of 10, a good performance,” Pollard said.
