By Liz Keller/Scrimmageplay.com correspondent
RICHMOND – For Woodberry Forest, it’s all about confidence.
And on Friday night against St. Christopher’s in the Prep League semifinals, the Tigers had plenty of it.
Trailing for the first time with 14 seconds to play against the host school, the Tigers stayed poised under pressure as Ziggy Vrana drained a 3-pointer with seconds remaining to lift the visitors to the 52-50 victory.
Woodberry, which also defeated Collegiate with late-game heroics during its quarterfinal matchup, advances to today’s tournament championship game for the second straight year. The Tigers face top seed Christchurch, which beat Fork Union in the other semifinal and went unbeaten in league play this season.
“If it’s a close game, you can’t act like it’s a close game, you just have to play,” said Woodberry’s Jack Flournoy, who poured in a game-high 20 points, including four 3-pointers. “I think that was our problem at the beginning of the season – we’d get in a close game and play real tense and we’d come out on the [losing] end. But now we’re playing to win, instead of playing to not get beat. We’ve had our fair share of losses just like this, so eventually the experience in these close-game situations paid off.”
Woodberry led by as many as seven points in the fourth quarter, but the Saints continued to chip away at the lead behind the play of Jermaine Johnson. The ultra-quick guard converted back-to-back layups to cut the lead to three at 41-38 with 5:46 remaining.
However, Flournoy quieted the boisterous St. Chris student section with a short jumper to extend the lead.
Johnson again helped cut the lead to three with a pair of free throws with 3:43 to play. The left-handed junior finished with a team-high 18 points, and when he wasn’t making shots, he was grabbing rebounds, dishing out passes and recording steals.
The Saints trimmed the lead to two with a 3-pointer from Rob Vozenilek. From there, the Tigers clamped down on defense, as Kevin Chuisseu made his presence felt in the paint with a couple of blocks and several key defensive rebounds. Chuisseu converted a free throw as Woodberry clung to a 49-46 lead, but Rodney Williams twice drew fouls and made two of his four free throws to pull the Saints within one.
After a missed free throw on the other end, St. Chris took its first lead as Vozenilek got his own rebound and the tip-in. The Tigers quickly took a timeout to draw up their final play.
“I told the guys before the game, that’s a good team. They’re allowed to make plays, they’re allowed to go on runs, and the only time they led was right there at the end,” Woodberry coach Joel Justus said. “That’s a tribute to our kids for staying calm, staying positive and the kids in the huddle were saying, we’re going to win, we’re going to win and they believed it.”
Woodberry got down to business as guard James Long found a wide-open Vrana in the left corner for the game-winning basket before a wild celebration ensued at mid-court.
“The original plan, the shot wasn’t for me, but it just happened I was open in the corner and James had a good look. I was just confident I would make it,” said Vrana, who finished with five points. “I knew I would make it because I had made it in practices and in games before.”
Flournoy and Long carried the scoring load and were the only Tigers in double figures. In fact, the duo scored 22 of the team’s 24 points in the first half. Long finished with 12 points, including three 3-pointers and Marshall Deal had six. Eight different players reached the scoring column for Woodberry.
Woodberry and Christchurch will play at 3 p.m. at St. Christopher’s Scott Gymnasium. The last time the Tigers won the league’s tournament title was 1986.
