For the second season in a row, the Suffolk Christian Academy boys’ basketball team returned to Virginia as the champions of the Eagles Classic New Year’s Invitational Tournament in Elizabeth City, N.C.

The Knights won handily on Friday against Great Hope Baptist High School, advancing to face host Victory Christian School in Saturday’s tournament championship game. SCA recovered from an early deficit to defeat the Eagles 51-48.

SCA faced Victory Christian earlier this season and won 68-52, but the Eagles, featuring some players new to the Knights, seemed intent on turning the tables on Saturday, holding a 13-7 lead at the end of the first period.

“I think really in the first quarter, they had made some adjustments from the last time we’d played them,” Knights coach Terry Leiter said. “They came up with a game plan to play us man-to-man instead of playing zone.”

It took Suffolk Christian a period to adjust, but the Knights turned things around in the second period, outscoring Victory Christian 16-9 and taking a 23-22 halftime lead.

Leiter said he saw some improvements in his team from earlier in the season.

“I think that we kept our composure a little bit better,” the coach said, noting how the Knights did not let their low-scoring first period against VCS take them out of the game.

He said while SCA never broke the game open against the Eagles, it maintained its lead, avoiding turnovers, which had plagued the team in past close games.

“The other thing that we did better than we have so far this season is from the free throw line, we were pretty consistent,” Leiter said.

In the title game, junior point guard Joel Pope went 4-for-4 from the line in the fourth quarter, helping keep the Eagles at bay for good.

Pope finished the game with a team-high 18 points to go with five rebounds.

“Harrison Judy had 11 points, also a really great effort from him, and Michael Cornette had 10 and was a great defensive stopper for us,” Leiter said.

Also helping Suffolk Christian was strong rebounding, as senior forward Barton Metzgar had 11 boards along with two blocks, and junior center/forward Joel Blasiole had nine boards along with seven points.

“I think we had some guys that hadn’t been playing as strong up until that tournament,” Leiter said. “Harrison probably comes to mind the most. He had really a couple of good games there, starting to play more to his potential, I think.”

The Knights’ junior forward/guard was named the tournament MVP for his performances.

“I was really excited for him,” Leiter said, noting that Judy hurt his knee last season and had to go through surgery and physical therapy on the difficult road back. “He’s put in a lot of hard work, and it’s nice to see him be rewarded for it.”

In addition to his 11 points against the Eagles, Judy registered eight rebounds, four assists and three steals.

In SCA’s 56-26 victory over Great Hope Baptist on Friday, Judy co-led the team with 12 points on 3-for-5 shooting from the field and 6-for-8 shooting from the line, grabbing six rebounds and a steal.

Senior guard Michael Cornette contributed 12 points, three steals and two blocks, Pope had eight points and seven assists, Metzgar had seven points and seven boards and Blasiole had six points and eight boards.

Pope was named to the all-tournament team.

Suffolk Christian (7-8, 3-4) hosts Friends School on Friday.

“It should be a pretty tough matchup for us, but hopefully we’ll use some of the things that we picked up from this tournament,” Leiter said.