Hicks Lifts Oscar Smith

In a matchup between two teams ranked in the Top 5 in the state in Group 6A, the Oscar Smith Tigers outlasted the Landstown Eagles 47-45 to win an exciting battle during the 8th Annual VirginiaPreps.com Classic Presented by Cox Sports held at Green Run High School.

The Tigers scored their winning basket on a three-pointer from senior wing Donald Hicks with 6.9 seconds to play. Hicks, who's headed to Radford University to play his College Basketball, finished with a game-high 22 points, 15 of which came after half-time. He also took home the MVP trophy.

Landstown would get one last shot off, an attempt by junior guard Aaric Marks in the corner that would end up short. The Eagles, who dropped to 13-6 overall and are presented ranked #5 in 5A, took the lead with 41 seconds to play on Daryus Evans' three-point play capped at the foul line. It was Evans' lone field goal of the contest.

Oscar Smith, which moved to 18-2 overall and entered ranked #3 in 6A, trailed by as many as eight points early in the third quarter. They ended up committing 12 of their 17 turnovers in the second half.

But the difference was outside shooting. Coach LaVar Griffin's Tigers went 4-of-5 from three-point distance (80%) over the games' final two quarters with Hicks and fellow senior Desmian Devane combining for five of those makes. Conversely, Landstown was 5-of-13 long range attempts (38.5%), going 4-of-8 in the first half compared to just 1-for-5 during the last 16 minutes of action.

Hicks and Devane have supplied the perimeter shooting bunch all season long - and throughout their careers for the Tigers for that matter. Yet, it's on the other end of the floor where they are seeing improved results.

Landstown came in riding a seven-game winning streak, averaging 66.7 points per game during that stretch. While Oscar Smith often wins with its potency on offense shooting 3's, their defense made a difference down the stretch.

Hicks finished with five defensive rebounds and three steals to go with his 7-of-12 shooting. Three different players - 6'6" sophomore Nyzaiah Chambers, guard Deondre McSwain and senior big man Wilfred Long - swatted away shots. McSwain also made three steals and Darrin Pugh had a couple of steals, both in the second half.

On the night, the Eagles turned it over 16 times with 11 coming in the second half. Oscar Smith scored 21 of its points off turnovers, capitalizing like one would expect a state title contender to do.

Over the years, Dwight Robinson has produced some stellar basketball talents on the next level. The lengthy list includes the likes of Stanley Pringle (Penn State), Julian Norfleet (Mount St. Mary's), Donte Morales (UNC-Wilmington), Darius Bolstad (Radford), D.J. Woodmore (Virginia Wesleyan), Reggie Williams (Morehead State) and several more in reaching the State Tournament three times during his tenure.

While this current version of the Eagles leans heavily on the play of seniors Maurice Jones, Daryus Jones and Darius Wallace - all hopeful to play at the next level with Division III interest for each - a freshman by the name of Michael Christmas is continuing to blossom.

Pushing 6'5" and starting in the post, Christmas took defenders away from the basket and showed extremely good touch and range on his jumper. On the evening, he was the Eagles' most productive scorer and rebounder, recording a double-double of 15 points and 10 rebounds. Maybe most impressively was how he got it done.

Christmas was 6-of-12 from the field in 25 minutes of play and helped Landstown outscore Oscar Smith 20-12 in the painted area. When the game sped up, he didn't seem to get bothered either as the Eagles were able to finish with a 15-8 advantage in fast-break points.

Wallace was a solid complement on the night with 13 points on 3-of-4 shooting from three-point land to go with five defensive rebounds and three steals off the bench.

It's quite possible that this won't be the last meeting this season between Oscar Smith and Landstown. In fact, the two teams could square off again in a couple weeks during the 6A-South Region Tournament, perhaps in the quarterfinals or the semifinal round.

They both would prefer it to be the semifinals because less would be at stake in that round since now the VHSL State Tournament has expanded from four to eight teams with the inclusion of quarterfinals.

Neither coaching staff wanted to show the either too much, recognizing a re-match could very well be in the cards.

Oscar Smith has already secured a regional playoff berth from Monitor-Merrimac Conference 2 by virtue of their regular season title, though the #1 seed goes to whoever win the Conference 2 Tournament.

Meanwhile, Landstown sits a game behind Kellam in the Coastal Conference 1 standings, meaning they would need the Knights to trip up at Cox in order to force a tie-breaker game. Otherwise, it'll require the Eagles beat Tallwood in the semifinals of the Conference 1 Tournament to advance to regionals. The two split during the regular season with Landstown winning by a lopsided margin in the second meeting.

Postgame Audio with Oscar Smith Coach LaVar Griffin

Box Score Link (HTML Version) Here
Box Score LINK (PDF Version) Here
VirginiaPreps.com Classic Stat Page Here

We'll have a Replay of this VirginiaPreps.com Classic thriller coming soon on the web site for our premium members to view. You can also order a DVD for $8 by e-mailing us at hatfieldsports@gmail.com.

Matthew Hatfield serves as State Basketball Analyst for VirginiaPreps.com, part of the Rivals.com Network, and is a staff writer for Tar Heel Illustrated. Check out Hatfield’s Twitter page for more sports related updates, and you can also read his work in the Suffolk News Herald. To contact Matthew, please e-mail hatfieldsports2k4@yahoo.com, and don’t forget to listen to him every Saturday at 10AM on ESPN Radio 94.1, plus watch him on the Cox 11 Sports Report.