Coming off their first losing season in school history, the Nansemond River Warriors boys basketball team went into the off-season determined not to let a repeat happen in 2015-16. They opened the season with a hard-fought 60-55 loss at Oscar Smith, ranked fifth in the state in Group 6A.
“We’ve made a lot of progress and we had a real good chance to win it,” said Warriors senior guard Josh Covington (pictured above). “They blew us out by 32 last year and we were just trying to fight back.”
Led by Covington’s career-high 36 points one night after he scored 25, Nansemond River bounced back on Wednesday with a confidence boosting 77-67 victory in Virginia Beach at Ocean Lakes.
Some of the improvement they’ve made was exhibited in the performance. The Warriors shot 54.2% from the field. A total of 11 different players scored. They managed to get 12 steals from six separate individuals and had 11 offensive rebounds from nine guys.
“Last year, we took everything as a joke, but we’ve gotten a lot more serious,” remarked Covington. “Our work ethic in the weight room and practice has gotten a lot better.”
Covington bunched 20 of his points in the first half as the Warriors took a 43-39 lead to the locker room at intermission. Vince Contreras, who is committed to play basketball at the Division III level for Averett University, kept the Dolphins afloat with 16 points through two quarters of play.
In the second half, the Warriors turned to Colby Williams to slow him down. It resulted in Contreras going 1-of-6 from the field with three points.
“I thought Colby did a great job on Contreras and he’s coming through as a person who can be a defensive stopper for us,” said Nansemond River coach Ed Young. “He scored, but he’s going to score because he has the ball a lot. Last night, he covered [Donald] Hicks from Oscar Smith and held him to 15. The kid scored 37 on us last year.”
Covington was held to just two points in the third quarter, but his teammates picked up the slack, in particular guards Darius Jones and Torrence Williams. They combined for 19 points on 7-of-13 shooting on the evening.
“We’ve got shooters. Torrence can hit, Darius, Nate Foster and the freshman Bryce Parker can step out and hit shots,” Young noted.
Nansemond River’s lead of 13 with less than four minutes to play in the game got cut to six with 1:29 to play after Ocean Lakes converted consecutive three-pointers. Covington stopped the bleeding with a key three-point play to push their advantage back up to nine.
“He does a great job of getting to the hole and has great body control,” said Young. “Against Oscar Smith, he was getting to the hole, dishing out and had like four or five assists while leading us in points. Without him on the floor, I know we’re in trouble a little bit.”
Covington made 18-of-20 free-throws to go with seven rebounds and four assists. He gave credit to his teammates helping him achieve those numbers.
“My point guard Darius put me in a lot of good positions. Also, my big men, Randall [Dixon] and Resean [White], they set good screens,” he stated. “That opened up my opportunities.”
Ocean Lakes, which dropped to 0-2 overall, got 23 points from junior guard Matt Campbell.
Now 1-1 overall, Nansemond River faces Deep Creek in their home opener on Friday, December 4th.
Young knows his team has some areas to get better in before conference play against many of the talented teams from the Peninsula District starts in January and February. However, he feels they are on the right track.
“We’ll be alright. You can’t win a Championship the second game of the year,” the coach commented. “Keep improving practice to practice, game to game, and maybe we’ll surprise some people.”
