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Every day in practice, the Hanover boys basketball team works on defense for 45 minutes to an hour. The fruits of the Hawks’ labors reaped their rewards on Friday night, when Hanover shut down the Atlee offense then held strong through a strong fourth quarter from the Raiders for a 61-51 win in Capital District play.

  For the Hawks, the win was not only significant because it completed a sweep of county district teams Lee-Davis and Atlee, but it also pushed Hanover’s district record to 5-4. After finishing at the bottom of the Capital District for the past two seasons, Hanover has locked up a fourth place finish and laid claim to the designation as the league’s most improved team. 

  “We’ve been in last place the last couple of years,” said first-year Hanover head coach Troy Manns. “It feels good not to be at the bottom.”

  The win also places the Hawks within reach of a preseason goal. “We wanted to win six games,” Manns said. “We’ve got three more games to win one.” Hanover stretch run included a trip to Varina on Tuesday night before taking on league-leader Highland Springs in a Friday night home contest. The Hawks then close out the regular season with a home contest against Armstrong on February 10.

  But the Hanover players have their sights set on picking up more than a single win. “We can lose the rest of our games and we still lock up fourth,” said senior forward Drew Crytser. “But don’t put us out yet. We’re still gunning for the second or third spot. We control our own destiny now and we’re definitely in a position where we like to be at the end of the season.”

  In the first quarter against Atlee, Hanover’s intense defense combined with horrid shooting from the Raiders to limit the visiting team to a Cameron Colquitt three over the first 7:31. Meanwhile, Hanover sophomore point guard Greg Lewis, who is rapidly developing into one of the district’s best players, was doing it all. Lewis, (25 points, 2 steals) opened the scoring with a three from the left baseline which was later followed by a soft loft shot. Following five straight points from Crytser (23 points), Lewis stole the ball then drove in for a layup to give Hanover a 12-3 lead with 1:11 in the first.

  “It’s a team thing, but Greg is growing up,” Manns said. “His physical ability is amazing, the things that he can do. It’s just getting his mind and his body on the same page.”

  The Atlee offense finally found a spark in the closing seconds when senior Daniel Faggert drilled a three off an inbounds pass from Phil Hodges. With :07.5 on the clock, the Raiders’ David Ratchford swiped the ball from the Hawks and scored on a layup. On the Hawks’ ensuing possession, Ratchford stole the ball again but the clock expired before the Raiders could score.

  Leading 12-8 heading into the second, the Hawks ratcheted up the defense once again, holding the Raiders scoreless over the first four minutes of the period. Meanwhile, Crytser and Lewis picked up where they left off in the first. Cryster scored on back-to-back shots then Lewis drilled a 10-foot elbow jumper to put the Hawks up 18-8 with 5:40 in the half. Senior Jared Yeager pushed the lead to 12 before Atlee found an answer when Hodges went one-for-two from the line. Atlee capped a 5-0 run with a pair of free throws from Colquitt, but Hanover closed out the half with a 5-0 run of their own to take a 25-13 lead into the locker room.

  Atlee came into the contest not wanting to allow the Hanover interior game and senior Dylan Cole, who averages nearly 12 points a game, to dominate them. In the first half, Cole did not score and picked up two fouls. “We played really good defense in the first half, but we were still down 12,” said Atlee head coach Phil Reynolds. “We felt like we had done a great job on Cole.” However, Reynolds said that his team paid a price for concentrating on the paint. “We lost Lewis and Crytser with parameter shots, but the strength of their game is inside and we did a great job, really throughout the game, with our interior defense.”

  Even though Atlee limited Cole to five points in the game, over the course of the season, Hanover has gotten exponentially better as Cole has matured through the acceptance of a role where he does not have to score. Against Atlee, Cole dominated the boards (21 rebounds), and drew enough attention on defense to open up the lanes for Crytser and Lewis.

  Manns said that the contest also served as a maturity marker for Crytser, which arose from a conversation between the pair prior to the game. “We talked about scoring,” Manns said. “In scoring you don’t just have to shoot threes to score the ball. It’s good to drive to the basket, get a free throw here and I think tonight he learned how to actually score the basketball and I’m proud of him.”

  While holding onto to their lead, Hanover found itself in foul trouble over the course of the third. Lewis picked up his third foul in the opening seconds while Cole was tagged with his third then fourth on back-to-back possessions at the three minute mark.  But Atlee remained cold from the floor scoring only two points over the first six and a half minutes of the period.

  Meanwhile, Lewis and Crytser continued to roll, scoring the first nine of Hanover’s 11 third quarter points and taking a 36-20 lead into the final period.

  Trailing by 16 heading into the fourth, Atlee began implementing a foul strategy with hopes that it would get them back into the game. However, Hanover did not comply with the Raiders’ plans by making 16 of 24 free throws in the quarter.

  “When we go to the free throw line, I always tell the guys make at least one,” Manns said. “Each possession we want to score at least one point.”

  As has been their trend throughout the season, the Atlee offense finally began hitting in the fourth, which Reynolds says could be attributed to the Raiders’ deep bench. “That’s good in some sense but in terms of being fluid and stuff maybe it has hurt us a little bit.”

  Also as has been the case, it was Colquitt how took control in the final period. Though playing on a gimpy ankle that was injured in practice on Monday, Colquitt scored 13 of his team-high 18 points in the final period.

  With 3:34 to play, Colquitt dished off to Ryan Farrar for a score that trimmed Hanover’s lead to seven, 46-39. But moments later Lewis answered with a baseline three to put the Hawks back in front by 10 with 3:02 to play and Atlee drew no closer than nine for the remainder of the game.

  “He played well,” Crytser said of Lewis. “Sophomore stepped in and hit a big shot in the corner to end their run.”

  Though Atlee fell to a disappointing 2-7 in the district, Reynolds said his team should not be counted out when it comes to making an end of season run. “I know we’re discouraged with our win-loss record in the district but everything we’re doing, we’re building for the playoffs,” he said.

  “I fully expect this team to bounce back with some good wins here late and make a good showing,” Reynolds added. Following their home contest against Patrick Henry on Monday night, Atlee closes out the regular season with home visits from Lee-Davis and Henrico before traveling to Armstrong on February 13.
 
HANOVER 61, ATLEE 51
ATLEE (2-7 Capital, 6-11) Colquitt 18, Garthright 0, Brinks 5, Faggert 6, Morrison 0, Farrar 9, Ratchford 2, Evans 0, Hodges 7, Reiss 0, Rogers 0, Prince 0, Johnson 4. Totals 17 12-19 51.
HANOVER (5-4, 5-14) Taylor 0, Crytser 23, Trsic 2, Lewis 25, Yeager 4, Carroll 2, Cole 5. Totals 16 25-35 61.
Atlee ............................... 8   5   7 31 — 51
Hanover….................... 12 13 11 25 — 61
3-point goals: A — Colquitt 2, Faggert 2, Brinks. H — Crytser 2, Lewis 2. Highlights: A — Cameron Colquitt 13 of 18 points in fourth quarter.
H — Greg Lewis 9 of 25 points in fourth quarter, 2 steals; Drew Crytser 7 points in each the second and fourth quarters; Dylan Cole 21 rebounds.