By Liz Keller / Scrimmageplaycva.com contributor
FORK UNION — Writer Henry Ward Beecher once said “We should not judge people by their peak of excellence; but by the distance they have traveled from the point where they started.”
The Fork Union basketball team has come a long way since it opened the season with a paltry 3-4 record. FUMA has now won 8 out of its past 10 games, including a 57-53 win over visiting Woodberry Forest.
The Blue Devils used a stifling defense and executed their gameplan to near-perfection down the stretch to elude the Tigers on Wednesday.
Fork Union, ranked No. 10 in the latest VISAA poll, has reeled off three straight wins and is tied for first with St. Anne’s Belfield atop the Prep League standings and seems to be peaking at the right time with three reglar season games remaining, including a Feb. 11 showdown in Charlottesville against STAB.
“We have to finish strong. There are no easy games in the Prep League,” Fork Union coach James Pelham said. “Every game is going to be close, we just have to be mentally tough enough to get these last couple of wins. If we look ahead, we’re going to be in trouble.”
The Blue Devils (10-6, 7-2) appeared to be in trouble in the fourth quarter, as they trailed by six points. However, sparked by a pair of baskets by Jared Armstrong, Fork Union went on a 14-2 run.
A quick steal by Lewis Freeman led to a basket in transition from Detwon Shelton to tie the game at 46-46 with 4:12 to play.
Fork Union took a lead it would not relinquish on another basket by Armstrong, as the Blue Devils exercised patience on the offensive end, working the ball around the floor to burn the clock. The strategy paid off, and with under a minute remaining, Freeman found Adisa Gittens-Smith under the basket, who finished the play with a nifty layup.
Freeman, a junior forward, came up big for the Blue Devils on the other end as well, grabbing the defensive rebound on each of Woodberry’s next two attempts. Freeman, who had three assists in the final 1:28, dished the ball to Armstrong for the finish as FUMA took a 54-48 lead.
“We got really impatient on offense,” Woodberry coach Craig Dawson said. “FUMA isn’t a team you want to get in a track meet with, especially in their own gym. We did a good job of controlling the pace in the first half. In the second half we started out doing it, but then we got antsy. When you have a young team like we do, you can’t control that all the time.”
The Tigers (9-8, 4-5) ended their five-minute scoring drought with a 3-pointer by Hawk Swearingen with 11.6 seconds remaining and cut the lead to two on a wide-open shot from Joe Foley with 2.5 seconds to play. The visitors, which led by as many as seven points in the second half, went 2 of 14 from the floor in the game’s final six minutes.
On the ensuing inbounds play, Freeman got the ball to Gittens-Smith again, who converted the easy basket as time expired.
“Every timeout I called, I never talked about offense. The whole time it was about defense,” Pelham said. “I told the guys, defense will win the game. For us to go on a 14-2 run, that shows that we were tough enough to gut it out and not worry about offense and focus a lot more on defense. Our energy was a little down tonight for some reason, but we were able to persevere. Sometimes you’ve got to win that way.”
Armstrong paced the Blue Devils with 18 points and Aundre Hyatt had 16, most of which came in the first half. The freshman forward also had several critical blocks down the stretch to help seal the win. Freeman reached double figures with 14 points.
Woodberry’s Luke Neeley led all scorers with 19 points, while Foley finished with 11. Swearingen chipped in with 9 points.
The Tigers play host to St. Christopher’s on Friday, while FUMA travels to Christchurch.
Trinity Episcopal is set to host the Prep League tournament, which begins on Feb. 17.
