Mason Heads to First Basketball Championship Game

RICHMOND - Noel Obusan said he wanted to play for a high school state basketball title in October.

After the Mustangs beat Fort Chiswell 62-50 Friday in the Virginia High School League semifinal, George Mason will play for their first championship in school history.

“It feels really good,” Obusan said. “We’ve been working really hard.”

Chris Capannola, the Mustangs’ head coach said his team showed resilience in playing without team leader Nate Ogle who sat the game out with an injured right wrist. Capannola said other players stepped up in Ogle’s place and propelled the team to a win. He is hopeful that resilience will spill over into Saturday when the Mustangs play against Lancaster High.

“We’ve played teams like Lancaster before,” Capannola said. “It just depends who plays better.”

Mason went on a 10-0 run in the first quarter behind the hot hand of Philippe Griffiths. The senior went 4-of-7 for three pointers, scoring 15-points in the game. He said he didn’t have a problem finding an open shot the entire game. It’s a team rule to take open shots and with Ogle out of the game, he felt a need to fire at will, he said.

“It was different without him out there,” Griffiths said. “It challenged all of us to step up.”

Will Nunley got the starting nod in place of Ogle and scored 13-points. Mason’s platoon of big men, including Nunley, combined for 23-points against 6 feet 6 inch tall sophomore Coleman Thomas. Capannola said the Mustangs had never seen anyone like Thomas (13-points, 11-rebounds and three blocks) in the paint. The massive center took up a lot of space and caused fits for Mason players slicing to the bucket or trying to rebound.

“We had zero answers for that kid,” Capannola said. “He was more skilled than we thought.”

The Mustangs will face off against another skilled big man in Lancaster’s Melvin Gregory. Gregory, a 6 feet 7 inch tall senior helped lead the Red Devils to an 82-60 win over Virginia High. Capannola said he believes his team can compete against Lancaster.

“We have four quarters of basketball left,” he said. “Leave it all on the court and see what happens.”

FREE THROWS

Griffiths and Obusan led the Mustangs in scoring with 15-points each. Nunley added 13-points in his start and Dimitri Venets scored 8-points before fouling out.