By Matthew Hatfield

Special to the News-Herald

The Nansemond River Warriors boys basketball team has been to the Norfolk Scope before, but the outcomes had not been in their favor until Monday.

For the first time under coach Ed Young, they were able to prevail at the Scope, holding off the First Colonial Patriots 62-58 in the venue’s third annual Holiday Classic.

“I was glad to be invited to it, and my main reason was I wanted to get a win on this court. We’ve been here before in the past, but never won,” Young said. “I wanted our kids, especially the young ones, to have this experience, because eventually when the regionals come back here, so are we.”

Nansemond River lost in regional quarterfinal games at the scope to Hampton in 2012, Booker T. Washington in 2011 and Kecoughtan in 2010.

For a team that has lost three games this season in which they led during the second half, getting a victory in a close game could be what the doctor ordered heading into 2016.

“This is big for us. It helps us a lot with our confidence playing on a bigger stage,” remarked senior guard Torrence Williams, who scored 18 points on 6-of-9 shooting from the field and made a team-high four steals on defense.

First Colonial got off to a strong start, converting nine of its first 11 shots. The Patriots led by as many as seven points in both the first and second quarters.

Defensively, the Warriors concentrated their attention on First Colonial senior forward Alize Rouse.

“Our game plan was — the big boy Rouse, averaging 18 a game, to really put bodies on him. He’s a hard one-on-one cover,” Young noted. “For the most part, we did. The first two times he touched it, he scored, but that was it for the first half. Unfortunately, we let the back door open.”

As a result, sophomore guard Dauvieh Bradshaw scored a career-high 10 points in the opening period alone. The Warriors had to adjust on Bradshaw and held him to three points the remainder of the contest. Rouse’s 12 was his second-lowest output of the year.

Nansemond River went on a 14-1 run in the second quarter, keyed Williams and Josh Covington, who played his first game after a two-game rest due to concussion protocols.

Covington led all scorers with 20 points on 5-of-8 shooting and went 9-of-11 at the foul line. Williams sparked the three-point shooting game with three makes from behind the arc.

“That’s my favorite shot,” Williams said. “We’re a great shooting team all around. We just have to move the ball a little bit more so we can get more open shots.”

The Warriors went 8-of-18 from long distance, beginning the game 6-of-8 in that category to quickly turn a seven-point deficit into a lead that swelled to as much as 15 in the third quarter.

Sloppy play toward the end of the third period and beginning of the fourth allowed First Colonial to close the gap. In fact, the Patriots pulled within a point with 4:28 to go.

By hitting their free throws — 10 of 12 to finish — the Warriors didn’t relinquish their lead.

“We’re always in the game,” Williams said. “We just have to work on closing out the game.”

Through nine games, the Warriors are 4-5 overall. Playing five sophomores and a freshman for extended minutes, one of their main goals was to see improvement heading into January.

“I think some of our younger guys, like a Josh Hale, have (improved),” Young said. “Another sophomore, Resean White, has been decent for us inside. The other sophomore, Gerard Stringer, has played well at times. We just have to get everyone on the same page and we can be pretty good in the second half of the year.”

The Warriors return to the hardwood on Jan. 5 at home against Southeastern District foe Grassfield.