By James J. Lidington

VIRGINIA BEACH

William Fricke hit two free throws with 10.3 seconds remaining to propel Isle of Wight Academy past Atlantic Shores 55-54 here on Thursday, Feb. 14.

The win was the first for the Chargers (14-11, 9-5 in the Metro Conference) on the Seahawks’ home court since Shores joined the Metro Athletic Conference in 2010.

Shores called a timeout with 7.1 seconds remaining to draw up a last-second shot, which went for naught as time expired.

IWA’s Russ Wells led all scorers with 17 points; William Fricke added 16, including 12-for-14 from the line; Worthy finished with 15. The Chargers trailed by as many as 7 points in the second half.

IWA was drubbed by the Seahawks, 62-38, when the teams met for the first time this season eight days ago. They seemed determined to make this game a similarly lopsided affair, jumping out to a 12-2 lead in the game’s first 5 minutes.

But Worthy’s 3-pointer kicked off an 8-4 run by IWA to cut the Seahawks’ lead to 16-10 after a quarter.

Isle of Wight eventually fought back into a tie, 20-20, when Fricke made two foul shots with 3:55 remaining before halftime. They would go on to take a 29-28 lead, their first of the game, when reserve Ethan Willette hit a 3-pointer with 35 seconds left in the third period.

IWA got down by 7 points, 41-24, but began its final comeback with a field goal by Fricke with 3:22 left in the third and a foul shot, also by the lanky IWA junior, at the 3:13 mark.

Willette made one of two foul shots to cut the Seahawks’ lead to 3, 41-38, with 2:42 remaining. Fricke and Worthy combined for 2-of-3 free throw shooting to knot the score at 41 at the end of the third period.

IWA built its largest lead late in the game when Fricke hit a pair of free throws to make it 53-48 with 2:14 left in the game. The Seahawks scored the next 6 points to take a brief lead, 54-53, with :30 left. Shores’ Logan Rawlings missed the front end of a 1-and-1 with 13 ticks remaining. Worthy was fouled on the ensuing IWA possession to send the speedy IWA junior to the line with 10.3 seconds left.

IWA finished the game 21-26 from the foul line. Shores only converted on 6 of 10 trips to the charity stripe.

• • •

IWA fell for a second-straight time to Portsmouth Christian, 59-56, at PCS on Feb. 12.

The Chargers led into the second quarter, but a 3:00 scoring drought put IWA behind while PCS took a lead, 16-15. Isle of Wight took a late lead, 52-50, when Hunter Hayden and Russ Wells hits back-to-back 3-pointers with 4:16 left in the game. But PCS scored the next 5 points to go up 55-52 with 1:56 to play.

The Patriots’ Theo Wheeler hit two free throws with 15.2 seconds left to put PCS ahead for good.

The Chargers will face Hampton Christian at 8:15 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 21, in the first round of the Metro Conference Tournament at Atlantic Shores. The two teams split their regular-season meetings, with both squads winning easily on their home courts.

The winner will play in a tournament semifinal Friday at Shores.

JAMES J. LIDINGTON is a teacher at Isle of Wight Academy. He can be reached at 357-3866.

 

Editor’s note: This version corrects the first sentence, which now properly credits William Fricke.