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[triswykes]

Norfolk Collegiate Wins Private-Public Clash
With Landstown, 58-50

Story and photos by Tris Wykes

Norfolk Collegiate point guard She'la White is one of Hampton Roads' best players.

NORFOLK_Wednesday's girls' basketball matchup between visiting Landstown and Norfolk Collegiate was an intriguing clash on paper and didn't disappoint in reality.

Public school vs. private school. Young, raw talent vs. an older, more polished host. A program that sees itself on the rise vs. the defending Tidewater Conference of Independent Schools champion.

Collegiate won 58-50, but trailed by five points at halftime and by two points after three quarters. Senior point guard She'la White had 18 points for the Oaks (7-0), who got 14 from Markell Smith, 10 from Annmarie Weaver and seven from Jordhan Peterson.

The game's turning point might have come after Collegiate used a 13-1 run to open the second half and take a 50-40 lead with 3:30 remaining in the game.

Landstown's Dallas McKnight then made both ends of a 1-and-1 chance, followed by a Diane Wesh field goal and the Eagles got the ball back with an opportunity to pull within four points.

However, point guard Vanessa Rosado missed a clean jump shot from the left side and White answered with a 2-point bucket for a 52-44 Collegiate lead. Including Rosado's misfire, Landstown made 2 of its last 6 field goal attempts.while the Oaks made 4 of their last 5.

Landstown's Monique McKnight, left, and Diane Wesh combined for 22 points.

Landstown (2-4) was led by sophomore forwards Wesh and Breana Norman, who each had 12 points. Monique McKnight had 10 points and Rosado had six, both on first-half shots from behind the 3-point arc.

``I'm very pleased overall although I'm not pleased with the fourth quarter,'' said Landstown coach Vernon King, who's missing last season's leading scorer, Ashleigh Jones, because of July knee surgery. ``We didn't have our legs and we stopped going hard to the boards. Instead of three of us banging, only one of us was banging.''

King scheduled the game hoping for a test that would teach his young squad a thing or two. The Eagles are comprised of one senior, three juniors, eight sophomores and a freshmen and are coming off back-to-back 13-10 seasons that were the first winning campaigns in the school's first six years.

``We've come a long way in the last year and I told my team they grew up a bit tonight,'' King said. ``I'm glad we played here in an adverse situation against a veteran team.''

Any discussion of the Oaks starts with White, who's headed to play at North Carolina next season. The 5'6'' guard whips passes in a blur and is so fast and agile she calls to mind Allen Iverson without the body ink and entourage.

White played her first two high school seasons for Wilson High in her hometown of Portsmouth but terrorized the TCIS last season and helped Collegiate reach the state semifinals.

``Coming here was a big change in academics, which I needed to prepare myself,'' White said. ``Wilson wasn't preparing me like I needed to be, and that was all that I was concerned about.''

Landstown knew it had to worry about White and King reiterated the point at halftime, with his team leading 29-24. White had seven points at that stage.

`` I said that she was going to come after us and that she could make the difference so we had to be very careful,'' King said. ``In the third quarter we let her get the ball up the court and then tried to deny her after that and it worked for a while. But a lot of her points came in transition.''

Said White: ``I had to calm the team down and and control everything. That's my job and I've been doing it all my life. I know when it comes down to it, the ball has to be in my hands.''

Good luck keeping up with White if she has a running start, and adding to the danger is a legitimate post threat in Peterson, a 6-2 senior who Collegiate coach Suzanne Midkiff said is being courted by East Tennessee State, Delaware, Hofstra and American.

``There aren't many kids who can match up with her in the TCIS so it's really going to be a big advantage when we hit conference play,'' Midkiff said of Peterson, who played at Maury before becoming an Oak. ``The public school games are a good test for her because they tend to have some size inside.''

Landstown, however, has only three players 5-10 or taller and none over 5-11. The Eagles countered with effort and a scrappy attitude, but made only 7 of 33 field-goal attempts in the second half and 19 of 66 in the game. The visitors converted 8 of 16 free throw chances and committed 24 turnovers.

Collegiate hit 14 of 30 field-goal attempts in the second half and 35 of 65 on the night. The Oaks swished 7 of 15 free throws and committed 16 turnovers.

Coach Suzanne Midkiff has led Norfolk Collegiate to 51 victories during the last three seasons.