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There's nothing like a winter break sojourn to Florida's Emerald Coast to cure all that ails you and get you in the right frame of mind for the tasks that lie ahead when you return home.
Such was the plan when James River coach Jonathan Parker-Smith scheduled the Rapids to play in the Innisfree Hotels Beach Basketball Tournament, a marquee event which annually draws a host of talented teams from around the country to Gulf Breeze in late December.
Parker-Smith's guys went 3-0 and won their bracket, but the most important benefit, he said, was the life changing nature of the five-day experience.
"The reason we take those trips is not about wins and losses," he said. "It's figuring out how we can love each other as teammates.
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"Every one of our games in Florida came down to two minutes left in the fourth quarter. That comes down to trust, honestly. Having off-court experiences like that trip builds trust and camaraderie. I can tell you that our guys trust each other."
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Wednesday night at Powhatan, the Rapids put trust into action as they built a 39-22 lead, then fended off the Indians' furious, no-holds-barred comeback to claim a 68-58 victory that wasn't ensured until they knocked down 8-of-10 free throws in the closing 1:25.
"We gained a brotherhood," said JR's Jalen Deloatch (12 points) of the Florida trip. "We all got better, and we came back a way better team."
How did "better" translate into victory over their Dominion District rivals?
"We found a way to come through," Deloatch responded. "When we get on the court, we all have one focus: to play basketball. What we do, we do with our heart."
The Rapids (6-3) held a 19-16 lead after a quarter, then proceeded to dominate the second.
They ran off 14 straight points on the strength of 3-pointers by Nolan Anthony (12 points), Lucas Mills, and Ethan Hodges (10), held the Indians to 1-of-12 from the field, outrebounded them 14-9, and with their trademark man-to-man forced five turnovers.
"We spend about an hour on defense every day," Hodges said. "We really work on our help side, talking, and being together. We had a lot of energy in practice today, and we knew what we wanted to do coming in here: play how we played in Florida and get a win on the road."
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The third quarter was all Powhatan.
Playing with nothing-to-lose, everything-to-gain abandon, the Indians (7-2) forced 10 James River turnovers, many of which they converted to transition buckets. Though the Rapids connected on seven of their 11 field goal attempts, all came after they broke the code on the home team's passionately played 1-2-1-1 zone press.
"We executed our game plan to a tee," said Parker-Smith of the Rapids' first-half success. "We were able to run the stuff we're really good at: hit 3's and get out in transition. We're our best in transition."
And the third quarter?
"We turned the ball over too much," he said. "We made careless passes and just weren't strong with the basketball. They'd seen us on film. We struggled with pressure early in the year. They saw that and exploited it.
"There's some homework to be done to put us in a better position to win."
That said, the Rapids found a solution on the fly.
With senior point guard Jonathan George (20 points) running the show, they steadied themselves despite the Indians' defensive intensity and remained poised as the home team cut its deficit to 57-51 when Jamison Wallace (16 points) scored from the paint at 5:45, then 57-53 when Matt Henderson (22 points, 16 in the second half) willed his way through traffic and hit a layup 4:30 from the end.
"We did what the coach drew up against the press," said George. "Got the ball to the middle and then to the opposite side. Just trusted each other. It all comes down to the work we put in in practice. We know we're ready for this."
After both Hodges and Henderson hit 1-of-2 free throws, Deloatch scored from the paint off a George assist, and both Anthony Creecy and George went 2-of-2 from the line to give the Rapids a 64-54 lead from which the Indians, try as they might, could not recover.
"In practice, we shoot a lot of free throws when we're tired," George said. "We know that we can make those shots when we need them."
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