Basketball: Cape Henry wins at Williams Shootout

HAMPTON

Cape Henry guard Devon Hall and Hampton guard Anthony Barber are regarded as two of the top players in the country.

Hall is ranked among the best in the class of 2014, while Barber is ranked in the class of 2013.

But when their teams met Saturday in the Boo Williams Shootout at Phoebus High School, Cape Henry sophomore James Paige was the star. He scored six of his team-high 17 points in the fourth quarter and grabbed 12 rebounds to lead the Dolphins to a 42-37 victory.

Cape Henry, the fourth-ranked team in South Hampton Roads and the No. 4 private school in Division II, won its seventh in a row. Three of those victories have come against two well-regarded public school teams – Hampton and Booker T. Washington – and one against Williamsburg Christian, which is ranked No. 1 in the Division III private school state poll.

“We’re on a roll right now,” Paige said. “And we’re playing really good team basketball.”

The Dolphins (10-3) led 17-16 at the half and then stretched their lead to six at the end of three quarters. But Hampton (12-3) went on an 8-1 run at the beginning of the fourth quarter to take a 32-31 lead with six minutes left. Cape Henry outscored the Crabbers 6-0 in the final three minutes to win.

“This victory was big,” Paige said. “We don’t play a lot of the teams over here and they think we’re soft. So we had to come out and prove we can play with these guys.”

Mark Hall, Cape Henry’s first-year coach and Devon’s father, was overjoyed.

“It’s a good win for Cape Henry basketball,” he said. “Obviously it was a low-scoring game but it doesn’t matter to me.”

Devon Hall was 2 of 10 from the field, Barber was 3 of 19.

“Anthony Barber scored a lot of points but most of his points came from the free-throw line,” coach Hall said about Barber who was 11 of 13 from the line and finished with a game-high 19 points. “We told him not to get caught up in their fast-tempo game.”

Fortunately for Cape Henry, the Dolphins had Paige.

“Jimmy really came up big,” Hall said. “He’s been struggling the last few games but I told him before the game that we had to have him play big and he did.”

Things weren’t great for another South Hampton Roads team, as No. 8 Norcom got pounded by Greenville (N.C.) 62-36.

Greenville, of Wilson, N.C., jumped to a 14-2 lead. The Greyhounds (7-6) cut the deficit to six in the third quarter but the Knights outscored Norcom 29-7 the rest of the way.

Norcom was led by James Whitaker and Devin Patterson, who finished with 13 and 12 points, respectively.

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