*****Courtesy of Michael Fields reporting on Vandalia Christian School basketball for GreensboroSports.com:*****
It was a huge game in Pleasant Garden on Tuesday night. Everyone had come to see the show. The show was the varsity boys’ basketball game between Vandalia Christian and Community Baptist. There was some hype around this game. The reason why is the last time that these two teams met in Reidsville at Community Baptist; it was an epic game. The final score was 100-97. That does not happen often in Christian school basketball. Also, a guy from Community Baptist had a 50 piece. Seth Brooks scored 50 points against Vandalia Christian at home back in January. This game was huge for both teams. Community Baptist wanted to know what it felt like to beat Vandalia Christian. They knew that it would be a great win in Pleasant Garden. For Vandalia, they needed the win. It was their senior night. They did not want to lose on senior night for the three seniors on the team. Also, they needed this win to keep their momentum going into the playoffs coming up. The main objection for Community was to win and mess up senior night for Vandalia. The main objection for Vandalia was to shut down Seth Brooks and get this huge win. After the start of the game, something was really obvious. Community Baptist did not like to play defense. They only wanted to play offense and have the ball in Seth Brooks’ hands. Vandalia was the opposite. You could tell that they wanted to play lock-down defense on Community. They knew that the offense would come to them. They were definitely right. There were a lot of missed shots in the first quarter. A lot of the shots were by Community Baptist. Vandalia had some of their own ill-advised shots. In the first quarter, it felt like it was going to be one of those high scoring afters like it was in Reidsville in January. Going into the second quarter, the Vikings had a five point lead. The Vikings turned up their defense in the second quarter. They always had their best defender on Seth Brooks. It was either Cameron Alston, Jared Talley, or Bryson Gordon. One of those guys was always in Seth Brooks’ face. Most of the time, he had two of the Vikings’ best three defenders on him. They were getting in his head. He was taking shots that he probably wouldn’t usually take. He was out of his game. Community Baptist did not know what to do at this point. Their offense went through Seth Brooks. With him not scoring, they were in a tough situation. Community did not score in the second quarter until a minute and a half left in the quarter. Vandalia played superb defense and pretty well-executed offense in the second quarter as well. Vandalia went into half with a thirteen point lead. Halftime was much needed for both teams. Seth Brooks hurt his ankle right before halftime. The halftime break gave him time to heal and rest it. The halftime break gave Vandalia some time to rest after the intense defense that they played in the second quarter. The third quarter was different for both teams. Community Baptist started to play some offense. Vandalia started to play more offense and less defense as well. It was almost a dual between the best two players for the two teams. For Community. Seth Brooks was going off as usual. For Vandalia, freshman Noah Dunn was silently having a good game as well. This went on into the fourth quarter. The second half of this game was all offense really. Seth Brooks and Noah Dunn ended up being the leading scorers for their respected teams. Vandalia went on for the win on their senior night.
Key statistic: Seth Brooks went off at Community Baptist for 50 points. This quieted Noah Dunn’s 29 points at Community Baptist in January. He also had 12 rebounds in that game.
1 2 3 4 Final Community Baptist 12 7 16 17 52 Vandalia Christian 17 15 19 21 72
Record for each team
-Community Baptist (18-8 overall)
-Vandalia Christian (21-4 overall)
Key Players for VCS
Noah Dunn: double-double (28 points; 13 rebounds)
Cameron Alston: double-double (16 points; 10 assists)
Bryson Gordon: 8 points; 5 rebounds
Jared Talley: 8 points; 6 assists
Matt Morgan: 6 points
Tyler Crook: 4 points
Matt Hobbs: 2 points; 12 rebounds