Thursday's Eastern Region boys basketball

NORFOLK

The Eastern Region boys semifinals are set for Saturday and it’s going to be an Eastern District-Peninsula District showdown.

Norcom, the Eastern District regular-season champion, beat Kellam 71-44 to advance, while Phoebus, the Peninsula District regular-season champion, defeated Tallwood 70-50. The two teams, who will play at 7 p.m., met earlier this season in the Ronald Curry Christmas Classic championship game, which Phoebus won 72-52.

In Saturday’s first boys semifinal, Maury, the Eastern District tournament champion, will play Kecoughtan, the Peninsula District tournament champion, at 3 p.m. at Scope.

Norcom (20-4) jumped on Kellam quickly with an 18-6 run. But Kellam battled back at the start of the second quarter with a 10-2 run to cut the deficit to four with 5:24 left in the half.

The Knights, trailing 20-16, were in striking distance, but it vanished quickly as Norcom drilled six consecutive 3-pointers, including five by James Theus to help the Greyhounds go on a 20-5 run before the half.

“I felt like I had to help my team out,” said Theus, who finished with 17 points. “(My teammates) kept me confident and they told me to keep shooting. And I just kept shooting.”

Norcom never looked back as the Greyhounds cruised to victory. They got another big game from Dorian Finney-Smith, who had a game-high 20 points, 10 rebounds and six assists to spark Norcom. He picked a great time to show off his skills as Alabama head coach Anthony Grant and Clemson’s Oliver Purnell were in attendance.

Norcom, which has now won 12 of its last 13 games, also got help from Jeremy Canty, who finished with 15 points.

Ramone Snowden finished with 15 points and 11 assists to lead Kellam (17-9).

Phoebus (25-2) also used clutch shooting to run away from Tallwood. The Phantoms started the game making 8 of their first 13 shots, including five 3-pointers.

“I haven’t seen a team shoot threes like that in a long time,” said Tallwood coach Tom Gunsalus. “Even Landstown is a good 3-point shooting team, but you only have two players to contend with. They had four or five guys.”

Phoebus jumped out to a 23-6 lead in the first quarter, but the Lions battled back with a 15-7 run to start the second quarter to cut the deficit to nine. But that’s as close as they would get because the Phantoms turned it up to end the half with an 8-1 run.

For the half, Phoebus shot 41 percent from the field, including 42.9 percent from 3-point range, and rotated 13 players.

“I thought we had a chance when we made that nice little run to get ourselves back in the game,” Gunsalus said. “But they play so many guys and they keep going ... and that kind of took the wind out of us.”

Brian Darden led Phoebus with 23 points, which included six 3-pointers. DeShawn Stitt added 15 points and nine rebounds. Darren Creary led Tallwood with 19 points, 11 rebounds and four blocks.

Many will be awaiting the Phoebus-Norcom rematch, especially the Greyhounds.

“We have to play harder defense because they can shoot the ball just like us,” Theus said. “We have to work on closing out and rebounding. We got something for them.”

Eastern Region quarterfinals

Norcom 71, Kellam 44

KELLAM (17-9): Freeman 11, Snowden 15, Burton 3, Reddick 8, Ward 3, McCallister 2, Morrucu 2. Totals 17 12-19 44.

NORCOM (20-4): Canty 15, Theus 17, Finney-Smith 20, Mack 2, Anderson 5, Nicholson 2, Smith 6, Ross 2, Minggia 2. Totals 37 9-15 71.

Halftime: Norcom 40-23. 3-point goals: Snowden, Burton, Canty 3, Theus 5, Finney-Smith 2, Smith 2.

Phoebus 70, Tallwood 50

TALLWOOD (20-6): Clark 8, Heard 8, Creary 19, Brown 7, Holmes 3, Thomas 5. Totals 24 7-12 50.

PHOEBUS (25-2): Saunders 9, Key 5, Stitt 15, Darden 23, Marshall 2, Daniel 3, Robinson 1, Lee 2, Williams 2, Jones-Clark 6, Warrick 2. Totals 29 8-12 70.

Halftime Phoebus 38-23. 3-point goals: Clark 2, Creary, Holmes, Thomas, Saunders, Key, Darden, Daniel.

Larry Rubama, (757) 446-2273, larry.rubama@pilotonline.com