Former VCU star, Wythe alum is rebuilding the RHSA basketball team, which won a nail-biter on Friday

The moment was fraught with tension.

The emotionally charged, thrust-and-parry matchup pitting Powhatan and Richmond High School for the Arts was tied at 45 with 17.7 seconds remaining Friday night, and all Lewis Mallory had to do was sink one measly free throw to give the Bulldogs the lead, tenuous as it would be, that they hoped would carry them through to the end.

The first of two had clanged off the rim.

After the Indians called time out in an attempt to rattle him, he stepped to the line for the second.

No pressure, the 6-4 senior forward told himself. Relax. Ignore the distractions. Seize the moment.

“I just had to breathe and not rush my free throw,” he said. “I took two deep breaths, twisted the ball around in my hands, looked at the front of the rim, bent my knees, and took the shot.”

It hit nothing but net. 

After a flurry of action at the Indians’ offensive end, teammate J.R. Brown hauled in a defensive rebound, drew a desperation foul with 1.2 seconds left, and hit both free throws to secure the visiting Bulldogs’ hard-earned 48-45 victory.

“Man, these guys play with incredible toughness, grit, and tenacity,” said Jesse Pellot-Rosa, RHSA’s first-year head coach. “They were diving on the floor, taking charges, and rebounding. They played like they had a will and want-to to actually win the game tonight.

“No matter what, no matter how, they wanted it.”

Richmond High School for the Arts is the school formerly known as George Wythe. Pellot-Rosa knows it well, having graduated from there on his way to becoming a star player at VCU. Now, he has returned to build the program back up as a coach.

On Friday night, Powhatan (0-9) jumped out to a 17-9 lead after one quarter, but the Bulldogs (2-8) owned the second on the strength of their full-court pressure defense, which forced seven turnovers, which led to 8-for-13 shooting.

Mallory’s bucket off a sweet inside move 12 seconds in lit the spark. 

Ken Parker and Mallory followed with unanswered 3-pointers, then both Mallory and Brown swished 2-of-2 from the foul line, and in a span of just 1:30, Pellot-Rosa’s guys had used their 12-0 run to turn an eight-point deficit into a 21-17 lead.

They were hardly finished.

They outscored Powhatan 11-7 the rest of the way to go into halftime ahead 32-24.

“We’d been playing a little selfish,” Mallory said. “First pass, and everybody was just shooting the ball. We talked about swinging the ball around a couple of times before we shot so we could get a wide-open shot. That’s what we did.”

The third quarter, though low scoring, was all Powhatan.

Mallory drained a 3-pointer at 6:47 to put the Bulldogs up 35-26, but Powhatan held them scoreless the rest of the way and, thanks to a 3-ball by Jayshaun Morris (10 points), two buckets from the paint by Landon Bogue, and Evan Sargent’s free throw, the Indians entered the fourth trailing just 35-34.

“They were doing what we weren’t doing,” Mallory said. “They were communicating, swinging the ball fast, and getting the open shots.”

At 5:12 of the final period, Bogue, a 6-6 junior, hit a 5-foot jumper from the paint after snatching an offensive rebound to pull the Indians even at 37. 

The Bulldogs never flinched.

“We try to be under control,” said Calvin Johnson, a 5-8 junior guard. “We don’t want the game to rush us. We want to rush the game. We want to control the offense and make defensive stops. 

“We held each other accountable, picked it back up, and played together as a team.”

After RHSA retook the lead and expanded it to 44-39 when Derrick Wyche went 1-for-2 from the line at 2:45, Powhatan’s Nathan Weyer cut the difference to 44-41 when he scored from close range at 2:20 and 44-43 when he delivered a resounding dunk following a steal 1:20 from the end.

Wyche hit 1-of-2 from the line to put RHSA up 45-43 at 1:39.

At 0:32.6, Powhatan’s Nick DeKeyser, a 6-3 sophomore, scored from the paint after securing an offensive rebound to tie the game at 45.

Try as they might, the Indians could muster nothing more. 

“The game wasn’t over until there were zero seconds on the clock,” said Mallory. “Got the W for our team. This feels good.”

The Bulldogs’ ledger read 14-for-48 shooting from the field and 11-for-25 from the free throw line, 35 rebounds, and 16 turnovers. The Indians’ read 17-for-62 from the field and 6-for-18 from the line, 48 rebounds, and 18 turnovers.

Mallory finished with 21 points.

“He was a leader,” said Pellot-Rosa of Mallory. “Both of his legs were cramping up, but he stayed positive the whole game. His energy fueled the other guys. Their energy fed off of his, and those guys wanted this win really, really bad.”