They are each other’s nemeses. Virginia Episcopal and Blue Ridge always find a way to end each other’s season in the playoffs.
Call this one the rubber match as the Barons won the VISAA Division 2 title game in 2015 over the Bishops, and then the Bishops won that same game over the Barons in 2016. This time, meeting up in the semifinals instead of the championship, VES looked poised to play spoiler to the top-seeded squad after a strong first half. However, while Blue Ridge might have had a cold shooting day in the first half, that was not the case in the second where senior Aamir Simms simply took the game over to lead the way for a 59-53 win.
“We have a lot of respect for VES and obviously we’ve played them in very big games these last three years,” said Blue Ridge coach Cade Lemcke. “We said if we could control that third quarter, I’ll roll the dice with our guys making smart plays, making stops with the lead down the stretch. But Aamir, Aamir was a man in that second half.”
Simms has played three years as a Baron and now he’s in his third straight state title game. The senior had four first quarter points, but 14 in the second half including a pair of third quarter 3-pointers. Those highlighted a run from Blue Ridge to open the third where a 2-point deficit was quickly turned into a 38-31 advantage. And Simms didn’t stop in the fourth as the Barons were able to go up by as many as nine points at 51-42 midway through the frame.
“This was the biggest game of my life,” Simms said. “I did everything I could to get my team back on this stage, but it wasn’t just me. Every senior stepped up. Every sophomore, every junior, every freshman stepped up and played their role to get us to this point. We deserved this. We worked for this.”
Blue Ridge absorbed a last push from VES by hitting 88 percent of its free throw attempts with Simms and Josh Colon doing the bulk of the charity stripe shooting. With two minutes left, Blue Ridge went to work on the clock as it was up by seven and the Bishops had four fouls to give before getting the Barons to the free throw line. While Patrick Kelly was able to get VES to within a possession at 55-52 with 54 seconds to play, Blue Ridge’s success at the foul line saved the day to ice the win.
“This game was pretty much a grudge match where we know what they’re going to do and they know what we’re going to do,” said VES coach Curtis Staples. “They have more athletes than we do pound-for-pound so we tried to not get into a track meet with them. We did that in the first half. Over the years this has become a rivalry and it seems like one or the other has a really good chance to win the whole thing. It’s all good fun and have respect for eachother. I feel like when we aren’t playing against each other, we’re pulling for the other.”
Things were a bit dicey in the first half for a Barons squad that split during the regular season. The Bishops’ Adi Arslanganic had himself a game, particularly in the first half as he scored 12 of his 19 in that stretch. VES took a 7-4 lead early, and after a push from Blue Ridge to get things to 14-12, the defending state champions took a 25-20 lead late in the second quarter. But with back-to-back 3-pointers, one from Darius McGhee and then a buzzer beater from Colon allowed the Barons to cut the lead down to 27-26.
“That was crucial,” Lemcke said. “We thought we were getting some good looks (in the first half) and executing but just not hitting them. For the end of that quarter… that momentum going into halftime was huge.”
On the night, Simms finished with 18 points and 10 rebounds. Colon and Sadaar Calhoun each had nine points. Colon had nine assists and six rebounds. McGhee had three steals and two blocks.
“We knew the winner of the third quarter, the one who got stops was going to be the one to win at the end of the game,” Colon said. “If we’re on top in the last two minutes we feel confident that we’re going to win the game. Our defense is going to do it for us, especially our press. I don’t think that there’s a team in the state of Virginia that can score buckets easy on us.”
Blue Ridge will play Miller for the fifth time this season in the fifth different location for the Division 2 championship at Virginia State University today at 2 p.m. A win would give the Barons two titles in three years.
