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Covenant explodes past Charlottesville

Western Albemarle may have won the Daily Progress/NBC29 Holiday Classic, but perhaps nobody had a better week at the tournament than Covenant.

The Eagles got a monster win over powerful Spotswood on the tournament’s opening night, stayed close with Western in the second round and then outgunned Charlottesville 75-66 for another confidence-building win in the tournament’s third-place game.

“For Covenant to go into a tournament with public schools as the only private school really accentuates our program,” said Covenant’s Sam Dale. “We’re showing that we can compete in athletics — we’ve taken a lot of steps forward in basketball.”

Dale, after finishing with just 13 points against Western, poured in 32 points and got a good amount of help from Boo Agee and Isaac Stewart-Silver (nine and 13 points respectively) to knock off the Black Knights. Stewart-Silver and Dale both picked up all-tournament nods.

The Eagles did a particularly solid job of keeping their composure during an early Charlottesville onslaught. The Black Knights came out on fire and snagged a 19-8 lead in the first quarter before Covenant took control of the game with some hard-nosed defense and a long-range assault that buried nine 3-pointers.

“It feels good to get this one — we try not to get caught up in the wins and losses, but it feels good to pull it out like this,” said Covenant coach Ben D’Alessandro.

Darius Watson, a freshman for the Eagles, came off the bench to bury a pair of 3-pointers and gave Covenant some solid minutes. Treven Myers also made some key contributions as part of long-range attack.

Defensively, Covenant managed to hold Charlottesville’s most prolific scorer, Maurice Jackson, to five points. The senior guard for Charlottesville managed to dish out three first quarter assists, but the Eagles clamped down on him after that.

Rickquan Jones, a sophomore, took a big step forward with a team-high 14 points, finishing off several buckets to keep Charlottesville within striking distance. Jones was also a big factor in the early run by the Black Knights. Terrence Briggs, who earned all-tournament honors, finished with 13 points for Charlottesville while Devin Turner chipped in 11 of his own.

Still, Covenant’s shooting and a 22-for-27 performance at the free-throw line sunk the Black Knights.

“I don’t know that many teams that can shoot that well from the perimeter,” said CHS coach Mitch Minor. “Every time they shot the ball it went in—they just did a great job on that and hitting free throws.”

Covenant returns to the floor Tuesday against Holy Cross on the road. The Black Knights will battle Goochland on Tuesday on the road as they return to Jefferson District play.

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