It was an eventful night at Fork Union Military Academy as the Blue Devils hosted the Veritas Collegiate Boys Basketball team. The contest was tough, hard-fought, and at times was full of confusion, but in the end, it was the Spartans that came out on top with a 47-42 victory over the Blue Devils.
“The shots aren’t always going to go in, but you have to pay attention to the details,” said Fork Union assistant Sean Singletary, leading the team with head coach Reggie Barnette unavailable for the game. “Since I coached at La Salle with Ashley Howard, who won two National Championships at Villanova, one of his and Jay Wright’s biggest things is to play without fouling, when you foul in essence you’re giving up free points.”
The foul line was a factor in the contest, with the Spartans earning five more foul shots than the Blue Devils.
From the very beginning things went off the rails as it began accidentally without the use of the shot clock. The 30-second shot clock is one of the rules that is often used in private school basketball, and with it suddenly and surprisingly taken away, there were moments during the game where both teams played through some confusion.
However, it didn’t stop both teams from competing, and it didn’t halt the Blue Devils in their comeback effort after going to the halftime break trailing 33-23. The Fork Union defense managed to lock down the Spartans in the third quarter, while getting some timely buckets. The biggest one of these was a buzzer-beating and-one off of a steal for Bilal Mitchell, which made it a 39-34 game after three quarters.
In the fourth Fork Union crawled closer to overtaking Veritas with a big bucket from Isaac Rivera making it a three-point game with just three minutes left. Rivera gave his team a spark throughout the game, playing tough defense and leading Fork Union in scoring with 14 points.
“Isaac played really well, he was able to score the ball for us, and also deny their best player pretty much the whole game,” said Singletary.
The Blue Devils were able to trim the deficit down to three, but could never find a way to get over the edge, and a clutch and-one from the Spartans’ Tyler Murray with 32 seconds left put the game out of reach. Sydney Townesend and Charlie Chapman, who had 14 and 12 points respectively, led the Spartans offensively.
Fork Union also got a standout performance from Jalen Chambers, who had 10 points on the night.
Fork Union will try to bounce back on Tuesday as they host University Prep Academy.
