Pierce powers Virginia Episcopal School boys past Hargrave

By Chris Humphreys
Lynchburg News & Advance
Published: February 20, 2008

Virginia Episcopal School gutted its way to a 54-48 victory over visiting Hargrave in the first round of the Virginia Independent Conference boy’s basketball tournament Tuesday.
The Bishops’ Jacob Pierce made three plays in the final 2:04 that would have made his football coach proud and VES made 9 of 10 from the foul line over the last 2:18 to secure the win.

“We made the plays we needed to make down the stretch, which is something we needed to do to get back on a winning streak,“ Bishops coach John Windham said.

It started with VES trailing 48-47. Pierce, a star defensive end, stepped in to take a charge from the Tigers’ Adrienne Lucienne with 2:04 left to play.

Then, with about a minute to play and the Bishops leading 49-48, Hargrave’s pressing defense appeared to cause a turnover. But Pierce came out of nowhere and tapped the ball to teammate Will White as he went sprawling across the floor.

The final play came with 9.2 seconds left and VES was leading 51-48.

The Tigers had just missed a shot and, during the battle for the rebound, the ball ended up on the floor and Pierce dove on it like he was a recovering a fumble.

The resulting tie-up went to the Bishops and White secured the victory by making 3 of 4 attempted free throws in the final seconds.

With the victory, VES (15-9) will travel to Miller School on Thursday for a semifinal game.

“We are going to enjoy (the victory over Hargrave) right now, but everybody knows that (Miller) is the team to beat,“ Windham said.

LCA, which upset Carlisle 39-37, travels to Roanoke Catholic, which defeated Holy Cross, 77-21, in the other semifinal.

The Bishops led by as many as 11 points in the third quarter, but the Tigers made a 12-4 run to start the fourth quarter and tie the game at 45 with 3:01 left to play.

Hargrave even took a 48-45 lead with 2:33 left when Lucienne scored three unanswered 3-pointers in less than a minute.

Nik Cvetinovic led VES with 21 points, eight rebounds and three steals.

But nearly all of the Bishops had a hand in the victory.

Pierce added five points and seven rebounds, Alex Herzing had eight rebounds and eight points, White had four rebounds, three steals and three assists, Brandon Robenson had eight points and Cameron Johnson finished with five points.

“Everybody contributed tonight,“ Cvetinovic said. “We are not just a one-man team. We win games when we have three or four players scoring.“

Quentin Coples (6-foot-6, 235 pounds) led the Tigers with 24 points.

“When Hargrave comes to play they are a very good team,“ Windham said. “And you know Coples is a pretty good athlete when has signed a scholarship to play football at North Carolina.“