BOYS State Semis: Varina 56 Handley 52 - FINAL
- Thread starter pizzzzza
- Start date
Congrats Varina. I know Bo is somewhere excited lol
Happy for the kids. After seeing the stuff the adults (so called coaches) do, hard to root for them. Talking crazy to Harry, yall, etc.
Too many personalities on one sideline in my opinion. I would respect it if they all didn’t talk. I will give them credit tho the coaches showed love to both of our outside corners after the game. Those were the kids that heard it the most. Hopefully we get a round 2 in December. I’m confident Phoebus will be there again — we RELOADED.
Sidenote I saw a Varina wrestler — big kid with dreads. He plays football too? He finished 3rd in the state in heavy weights.
Last night didn't seem bad. The players talked a lil trash to the student section after the game which I'm ok with if the adults don't let it get out of hand. Handley showed up and it was an all around great atmosphere to me.
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Region B going to be loaded. Dinwiddie will be better than they were last year, Huguenot will be 10-0 again, Louisa going to be very very tough and a nightmare matchup for Varina and Huguenot, plus another team that’s goin to shock C4. Varina will be the best on paper, but they’ve had some teams this good before.
That wrestler is Adams Turpin. Played football (played more in 2023 than this past season but was their kick off man). 6’5 270ish. Not sure where he’ll go to school but definitely a D2 caliber kid just off of size alone.
@BoKnowsSports how you feel about this rematch. I haven't watched too many games this year and while I don't think talent wise we took much of a step back. It just looks like we're missing a clear leader without big Wyche to settle things sometimes?
I don’t see Atlee beating Varina at the Stu. Hopkins will need another 30 ball and Axel will have to score 20+. I think Boom will have his guys keyed in on stopping one or the other. I’ve seen many Varina games for the past 10 years and they beat you by bully ball. They had Handley terrified the other night. If they can play that same brand plus I already think the moment may be too big for Atlee, I got Varina winning this thing.
Winchester Star article on Varina - Handley game:
WINCHESTER — The Handley High School boys’ basketball team will have to wait at least one more season to hang up its first state championship banner.
The Judges came up short against Varina in the Virginia High School League Class 4 state semifinals on Friday, falling to the Blue Devils 56-52 in a packed Maddex-Omps Gymnasium. With the defeat, Handley ended its season 25-2, and Varina advanced to the Class 4 title game against Atlee next Friday.
Trailing by one at halftime, Handley’s Kyren Oglesby hit a deep 3-pointer on the right wing with 1:40 left in the third quarter to cap off a 10-0 run for the Judges and give his team a 36-28 lead. But from that point forward, Varina (19-4) outscored the Judges 28-16.
Going into Friday’s game, Handley coach Zach Harrell-Zook said defensive rebounding and limiting turnovers were going to be keys to victory in the semifinal game. Those exact two things wound up being the center of the Judges’ undoing, as Varina grabbed 17 offensive rebounds and forced 17 turnovers.
After speaking with an emotional locker room following the loss, Harrell-Zook was adamant those were the two numbers that mattered the most in his team’s season-ending defeat.
“We went toe to toe with one of the best teams in the VHSL in all classifications,” Harrell-Zook said. “It’s hard to win with 17 turnovers and give up 17 offensive rebounds when the team is that athletic. Those things just kill you.
“I thought when we controlled the game, when we were able to play defense and we were able to do those things, I felt like we really executed. And then, when they got second chances, or when we turned it over is where we lost the game. To lose by four, giving up 17 offensive rebounds and having 17 turnovers, [that] just shows you how close you are and how thin the margin is to beat a team like that.”
Handley’s Will Braun-Duin, who finished with a team-high 20 points, hit two free throws with six minutes left to give his team a 41-38 advantage. That wound up being the last time the Judges led. Over the next four minutes, Varina went on a 10-2 run to take a 48-43 lead with two minutes remaining.
While Handley squandered its lead, the Judges still had a chance to tie the game or possibly win it late.
Trailing by six with 25 seconds left, Christian Dinges (13 points) rebounded a missed 3-pointer by Braun-Duin in the right corner and drilled a 3-pointer of his own to bring the Judges within two at 53-50.
But the person who decimated Handley’s chances in the first seven and a half minutes of the fourth quarter also put the nail in the coffin in the final seconds. That was Varina’s Brian Mitchell, who scored 17 of his game-high 21 points in the final period.
After getting fouled following Dinges’ 3-pointer, Mitchell made his first free throw to bring his team’s lead to 54-50 with 14.1 seconds left. A reverse layup by Jaevon Brisco eight seconds later made it a one-possession game before Handley fouled Mitchell again to send him back to the line with 0.9 seconds remaining. Mitchell then sunk both free throws to ice the game and send his team to the state title game.
Mitchell took advantage of Oglesby and Dinges both having four fouls in the final period, shooting 4 for 6 from the floor and making all nine free-throw attempts.
Mitchell and Braun-Duin are teammates on the Boo Williams AAU team, so Varina coach Kenneth Randolph was hoping Friday’s matchup would incentivize his star sophomore to outduel Handley’s.
“We were waiting for him to show up the whole game,” Randolph said of Mitchell. “Him and [Braun-Duin] are teammates on the Boo Williams AAU team, so I knew it was a little personal for them both. I’m glad [Mitchell] was on the back end of things and pulled us through.”
Harrell-Zook, who coached Mitchell on Boo Williams last summer, only had so many options to throw at the 6-foot-4 Mitchell.
“Ideally, [you] could put Christian or Kyren on him, but at that point in the game, those guys had four fouls,” Harrell-Zook said. “We had Will on him there, and all they were trying to do was just bury the ball down [to Mitchell]. They knew that nobody could help because of the foul trouble that we had. They made the best of those opportunities.”
Harrell-Zook added that Varina is one of three teams across the VHSL that are the cream of the crop in boys’ basketball. The other two, he said, are Class 2’s John Marshall and Class 3’s Hopewell.
“If you want to win a title in any of those divisions, you have to beat those teams. Period. It runs through them,” Harrell-Zook said. “We’re close, but the margin for error is pretty small.”
Handley will return its core nucleus of players next season but will lose seniors Jaishaun Offutt, Brendan Campbell and Logan Ambrose.
WINCHESTER — The Handley High School boys’ basketball team will have to wait at least one more season to hang up its first state championship banner.
The Judges came up short against Varina in the Virginia High School League Class 4 state semifinals on Friday, falling to the Blue Devils 56-52 in a packed Maddex-Omps Gymnasium. With the defeat, Handley ended its season 25-2, and Varina advanced to the Class 4 title game against Atlee next Friday.
Trailing by one at halftime, Handley’s Kyren Oglesby hit a deep 3-pointer on the right wing with 1:40 left in the third quarter to cap off a 10-0 run for the Judges and give his team a 36-28 lead. But from that point forward, Varina (19-4) outscored the Judges 28-16.
Going into Friday’s game, Handley coach Zach Harrell-Zook said defensive rebounding and limiting turnovers were going to be keys to victory in the semifinal game. Those exact two things wound up being the center of the Judges’ undoing, as Varina grabbed 17 offensive rebounds and forced 17 turnovers.
After speaking with an emotional locker room following the loss, Harrell-Zook was adamant those were the two numbers that mattered the most in his team’s season-ending defeat.
“We went toe to toe with one of the best teams in the VHSL in all classifications,” Harrell-Zook said. “It’s hard to win with 17 turnovers and give up 17 offensive rebounds when the team is that athletic. Those things just kill you.
“I thought when we controlled the game, when we were able to play defense and we were able to do those things, I felt like we really executed. And then, when they got second chances, or when we turned it over is where we lost the game. To lose by four, giving up 17 offensive rebounds and having 17 turnovers, [that] just shows you how close you are and how thin the margin is to beat a team like that.”
Handley’s Will Braun-Duin, who finished with a team-high 20 points, hit two free throws with six minutes left to give his team a 41-38 advantage. That wound up being the last time the Judges led. Over the next four minutes, Varina went on a 10-2 run to take a 48-43 lead with two minutes remaining.
While Handley squandered its lead, the Judges still had a chance to tie the game or possibly win it late.
Trailing by six with 25 seconds left, Christian Dinges (13 points) rebounded a missed 3-pointer by Braun-Duin in the right corner and drilled a 3-pointer of his own to bring the Judges within two at 53-50.
But the person who decimated Handley’s chances in the first seven and a half minutes of the fourth quarter also put the nail in the coffin in the final seconds. That was Varina’s Brian Mitchell, who scored 17 of his game-high 21 points in the final period.
After getting fouled following Dinges’ 3-pointer, Mitchell made his first free throw to bring his team’s lead to 54-50 with 14.1 seconds left. A reverse layup by Jaevon Brisco eight seconds later made it a one-possession game before Handley fouled Mitchell again to send him back to the line with 0.9 seconds remaining. Mitchell then sunk both free throws to ice the game and send his team to the state title game.
Mitchell took advantage of Oglesby and Dinges both having four fouls in the final period, shooting 4 for 6 from the floor and making all nine free-throw attempts.
Mitchell and Braun-Duin are teammates on the Boo Williams AAU team, so Varina coach Kenneth Randolph was hoping Friday’s matchup would incentivize his star sophomore to outduel Handley’s.
“We were waiting for him to show up the whole game,” Randolph said of Mitchell. “Him and [Braun-Duin] are teammates on the Boo Williams AAU team, so I knew it was a little personal for them both. I’m glad [Mitchell] was on the back end of things and pulled us through.”
Harrell-Zook, who coached Mitchell on Boo Williams last summer, only had so many options to throw at the 6-foot-4 Mitchell.
“Ideally, [you] could put Christian or Kyren on him, but at that point in the game, those guys had four fouls,” Harrell-Zook said. “We had Will on him there, and all they were trying to do was just bury the ball down [to Mitchell]. They knew that nobody could help because of the foul trouble that we had. They made the best of those opportunities.”
Harrell-Zook added that Varina is one of three teams across the VHSL that are the cream of the crop in boys’ basketball. The other two, he said, are Class 2’s John Marshall and Class 3’s Hopewell.
“If you want to win a title in any of those divisions, you have to beat those teams. Period. It runs through them,” Harrell-Zook said. “We’re close, but the margin for error is pretty small.”
Handley will return its core nucleus of players next season but will lose seniors Jaishaun Offutt, Brendan Campbell and Logan Ambrose.
