Enough about the depleted Cape Henry boys basketball team.
What the Dolphins have left after losing two starters to knee injuries three weeks ago may be enough to win the TCIS tournament championship they seemed headed toward before injury struck.
Friday night resourceful Cape Henry rallied from an 11-point deficit in the third quarter to beat preseason favorite Norfolk Collegiate 52-49 in the semifinals.
The second-seeded Dolphins (22-6) will face top seed Hampton Roads Academy (24-4) in the championship game tonight at 6 o’clock. HRA routed Walsingham 68-45 in the other semifinal.
Cape Henry battled back behind a barrage of 3-pointers and dogged defense.
Cole Conrad hit four straight threes and Darrian Freeman added a fifth to fuel a 15-2 run by the Dolphins that gave them a 36-34 lead with 58 seconds left in the third period.
There were four lead changes and three ties the rest of the way.
The Dolphins went ahead to stay at 50-48 on a follow shot by Terrell Allen with 25 seconds remaining in the game. Chris Astorga’s two free throws with 16.5 seconds left protected the lead.
Norfolk Collegiate had a good shot to tie the game, but Matt Schafer (13 points) had his 3-pointer roll around the rim and bounce away just before the buzzer sounded.
“At the half I was thinking we just hadn’t played our best offensive basketball yet,” said Cape Henry coach Larry Ward. “We talked about buckling down, making two or three stops on them, and then getting a couple of baskets to make a game of it.”
Of course, the Dolphins fell behind by 32-21 early in the third period before Ward’s plan began to work.
Conrad played a big role in the comeback, dropping in uncontested threes from the corner.
“We’ve been down before, so it’s not like we were freaking out or anything,” said the senior guard, who claimed he has “no idea” what his scoring average is, but it is surely nowhere near the 15 points he dropped on the Oaks. “I knew somebody had to step up. They were giving me wide-open shots, so I took them.”
“They were some big threes,” said Ward.
Cape Henry also played terrific defense in the last 12-13 minutes of the game, disrupting the Norfolk Collegiate passing game, contesting every shot and preventing Keith Wright, the 6-7 TCIS Player of the Year, from getting a single shot in the fourth period.
Allen, a 6-5 sophomore, who scored 12 points and grabbed 15 rebounds, was largely responsible for that.
“T.O. (Allen’s nickname) really battled Keith inside,” said Ward.
Another Dolphin hero was Freeman. The Dolphins point guard played a strong floor game and scored seven of his nine points in the second half.
Dante Hill led Norfolk Collegiate with 16 points.
Hampton Roads, seeking its first TCIS crown since 1988, easily handled Peninsula rival Walsingham as Lucas Pervan had 21 points and Calvin Kibwe 20.
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