Going over two weeks with few practices and games took its toll on the Lee-Davis boys basketball team during Tuesday night’s Capital District Tournament quarterfinal against Varina.

The #5 seeded C-feds trailed by 17 early due to mental lapses and though they battled back to tie the Blue Devils late, things did not go their way down the stretch as #4 seed Varina came away with a 61-50 win.

“We didn’t come out ready,” said Lee-Davis head coach Tripp Metzger. “I said something to the guys yesterday in practice. I think we weren’t focused and I think it carried over to tonight. We got here, they were still not in the right frame of mind.

“I think if we come ready to play it’s a different game,” Metzger added.

Both teams got off to rocky starts with multiple turnovers and over two minutes passed before either scored.

Lee-Davis senior Chris Cook (15 points) finally broke the ice at the 5:53 mark with a drive inside.

With 3:46 remaining in the first quarter, the C-feds pulled out to a 6-4 lead on a three from the left wing by senior Jordan Boze.

But then the weeks without practice or play took its toll. Lee-Davis did not score again until nearly two and a half minutes into the second quarter.

Meanwhile Varina started to get hot. Led by nine points from junior DeVonte Smith the Blue Devils went on a 17-0 run over the same period of time to take a 23-6 lead.

“I think they lost their focus,” Metzger said. “It’s tough. Every team’s got to deal with it.”

But trailing by the largest margin of any team in the district quarterfinals, Lee-Davis fought back with senior leadership.

Justin Naumann (11 points) scored on back to back put-backs then Greg Frame (12 points) took on a commanding role distributing the ball and making shots. Frame scored on a short jumper than connected on a three from the top of the key. Frame then found Boze open inside.

Following a pair of free throws from Dustin Abele, Boze found Frame for a score cutting the Varina lead to six, 27-21 with 30 seconds left in the half.

But a basket from Smith with two seconds on the clock pushed Varina’s margin back to eight heading into the locker room.

In the second half, the C-feds picked up where they left off with Cook scoring the first seven points of the period to pull Lee-Davis within one.

Varina edged ahead 35-30 on three baseline drives from Ace Johnson (10 points) but Lee-Davis came back to tie the game off a Naumann put-back and a Cook three.

Following a pair of free throws from Varina’s Xavien Ready (14 points), Naumann did the same to re-knot the game with 43.9 to play in the third.

“That’s just senior leadership,” Metzger said. “They wouldn’t let this team go down. We came back. We fought. We had it right there.”

But an Andre Wood three from the left baseline returned the lead to the Blue Devils at the buzzer.

Varina opened the fourth with a 7-3 run for a 47-40 advantage with 4:37 to play.

A score from Frame pulled the C-feds within five but then things stopped working in Lee-Davis’ favor.

With less than three minutes to play and still trailing by five, Cook juked a Varina defender into the air then rose up for a three as the Blue Devil collided with him. No foul was called and the shot fell woefully short into the hands of Varina.

As the Blue Devils moved into the front court Coach Matt McKeag made the decision to run out the clock though nearly three minutes remained.

With only four fouls in the half, Lee-Davis could take chances in a need to pick up three more fouls to send Varina to the line.

Following a foul on Boze as he attempted a steal, Cook went for a wrap-around steal on Dominique Fitts. But Cook hooked Fitts shoulder and was instead called for an intentional foul.

“Some things didn’t go our way here or there,” Metzger said. “Some things we didn’t take care of would have gone or way if we took care of it.”
Though Fitts only made one of two, trailing by nine Lee-Davis had to continue to foul to extend the game but the Blue Devils went 8-13 from the stripe over the remainder of the contest to seal the win.

Besides being the final game for six Lee-Davis seniors, the most frustrating aspect in the loss was how well the C-feds were playing prior to the two weeks of school cancelations. “We were really hitting our stride there,” Metzger said. “Before that snow all came we’d won six of our last eight and we were on a great run. Then the snow came and we kind of got away from the gym and it’s tough.

“I think their unusual length off got us away from what we were doing well and I hate that,” Metzger added. “There were some guys who were out of shape, sucking some wind. We had some high expectations for the season.”

LEE-DAVIS (8-12) Cook 15, Frame 12, Naumann 11, Boze 5, Abele 5, Powell 2, King 0, Spenaler 0, Labonis 0. Totals 19 8-13 50.
VARINA (9-12) Smith 15, Ready 14, Johnson 10, Fitts 7, Wood 6, Q. Jones 4, Bradley 3, Hardy 2, Brown 0. Totals 20 16-22 61.
Lee-Davis…................ 6 15 16 13 — 50
Varina ........................ 20 9 11 21 — 61
3-point goals: L-D — Cook, Abele, Boze. V —Wood 2, Smith, Ready.