Improved SCA anticipates conference tourney
Published 6:06 pm Tuesday, February 17, 2015
The Suffolk Christian Academy boys’ basketball team awaits its opportunities for postseason glory, which will not begin until Monday, but it can savor a solid ending to an improved regular season in the meantime.
“However the tournament ends up, I feel like we’ve had a successful season,” Knights coach Terry Leiter said.
Suffolk Christian closed out its regular season schedule on Thursday with a 79-34 home conference win over Chesapeake Bay Academy.
“I thought we played pretty well,” Leiter said, though he noted Chesapeake Bay is fielding “a real young team this year,” and the score was more a reflection of a mismatch than the Knights’ dominance.
He was pleased that his team was able to spread the points around in its lineup.
Senior guard/forward Nathan Leiter led SCA with 23 points, junior forward Barton Metzgar added 16, senior forward/guard Alex Griffith had 12 and junior forward/guard Steven Effler had nine.
“Michael Cornette and Steven both were really generous with the ball,” Coach Leiter said.
While Effler has typically led the Knights in scoring this season, “that night, he just recognized that we had the game well in control,” Coach Leiter said.
Efforts were made in a few instances to set up the 6-foot-6-inch Metzgar for some dunks.
“He had one that was a real good, solid two-hand dunk,” Coach Leiter said.
Last season, Suffolk Christian managed just four wins. This season, the Knights are 11-15 overall and 6-8 in the Hampton Roads Athletic Conference.
Coach Leiter made it clear his team does not want to be satisfied with 11-15 but acknowledged the improvement.
“I feel like we’ve made a lot of progress from last year to this year.”
He noted the Knights’ record is a little deceptive, too, because other teams like the BEACH Breakers, which sport significantly superior records, barely escaped with wins against Suffolk Christian.
Leiter also pointed out that while SCA has improved, “the other teams in our conference improved a lot, too.”
Suffolk Christian will hold the No. 5 seed out of eight teams in the upcoming conference tournament.