Freeman Finishes Strong

by Stephen M. Lewis
DigitalSports Richmond

Douglas Freeman placed four players in double figures to defeat Fork Union 73-54 in the quarterfinals of the Rebel Invitational Wednesday night.

The Rebels pulled away early in the fourth quarter after a Waverly Washington jumper sliced Freeman’s lead to 51-45. Rebels coach Larry Parpart quickly called timeout to regroup his troops.

It worked.

Freeman responded with a 16-4 run, scoring on seven straight possessions to put away Fork Union in the first game of the season for both teams.

“I really just think that we’re not as conditioned as we need to be,” said Fork Union coach Matt Donohue, who added that the Blue Devils hadn’t practiced all week because of Thanksgiving break. “I think we just ran out of gas and ran out of energy.”

Up six, Evan Vitello hit a jumper, then Omari Vaughan-Nelson (10 points) scored off a nifty feed from Jake Eastman.

Then Eastman (21 points), an incredible 3-point marksman, buried his fourth trey of the game from Monty Smalley.

Vaughan-Nelson scored again, Josh Brinkley (12 points) followed a Vaughan-Nelson miss, and then Phillip Rohrer (14 points) hit five straight points to run away from Fork Union.

“We had two or three possessions that we couldn’t do anything,” Parpart said of the early fourth-quarter stretch. “For the first game, I was pleased with how we played. I thought we played pretty good defensively.”

The Rebels will try to duplicate that defensive performance Friday against No. 3 Highland Springs in one of Friday’s semifinals. Fork Union will face Meadowbrook Thursday, an 81-51 loser to the Springers.

Akeem Thomas led Fork Union with 18 points. Brandon and Isiah Davis scored 12 and 11 points, respectively, for the Blue Devils.

Fork Union 10 13 20 11 – 54
D. Freeman 18 17 16 22 – 73
Fork Union (0-1): Hsieh 0, Wilson 4, Washington 4, Blue 0, Berscak 0, Abdul-Raheem 3, I. Davis 11, Thomas 18, Floyd 2, Domingue 0, B. Davis 12. Totals: 23 5-8 54. 3-point goals: Thomas 2, Abdul-Raheem.
Douglas Freeman (1-0): Eastman 21, Vaughan-Nelson 10, Brinkley 12, Vitello 5, Rohrer 14, Smalley 4, Dennis 4, Mann 3. Totals: 27 13-19 73. 3-point goals: Eastman 4, Rohrer 2.