TCIS Semifinals: Five Takeaways

<p>Norfolk Christian hosted the TCIS semifinals last night that featured the number 1 seed <strong>Catholic</strong> defeating number 4 seed <strong>Cape Henry</strong> followed by #2 <strong>Steward</strong> defeating #3 <strong>Peninsula Catholic</strong> in four overtimes. Below are five takeaways from the games.</p> <h3><b>Catholic Dominates</b></h3> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">It was a complete performance by Catholic in the first semifinal game last night as they dominated from start to finish against Cape Henry and won by a final score of 59-40. 2024 [player_tooltip player_id="1117676" first="Josiah" last="Rickards"] led with 21, 2022 available senior [player_tooltip player_id="962787" first="Kendon" last="Peebles"] finished with 15 while 2024 [player_tooltip player_id="1259548" first="Brayden" last="Thorne"] chipped in with 13.</span></p> <h3><b>Melvin Closes In On 1K</b></h3> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">2022 [player_tooltip player_id="815586" first="Greg" last="Melvin"] recorded his 1000th career point last night and did all he could to help the Dolphins advance to the TCIS championship game. Melvin wraps up a tremendous career with the Dolphins and remains one of the top unsigned seniors in the 757.</span></p> <h3><b>Free Basketball</b></h3> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">One of the best games I have seen all year was last night as Peninsula Catholic and Catholic played a 4OT thriller with Steward ending up winning by a final score of 83-80. It was a game that went back and forth all game long and goes down as one of the best TCIS games I have ever seen.</span></p> <h3><b>Curtis Blair Development</b></h3> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">It has been quite some time since I have seen Blair and I thoroughly enjoyed what I saw out of the 5th ranked prospect in the state of Virginia. Blair has filled out and has expanded his scoring ability to all three levels at a consistent level. It will be interesting to see how it plays out for Blair this summer on the AAU circuit.</span></p> <h3><b>Complete Performance By Peninsula Catholic</b></h3> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Even in a loss, it was a very impressive outing for Peninsula Catholic. The Knights have a boatload of talent that includes 2023 [player_tooltip player_id="1107884" first="Stylz" last="Gardner"], 2024 [player_tooltip player_id="1259672" first="EJ" last="Joyner"], 2022 [player_tooltip player_id="1107838" first="Chris" last="Brown"] and 2022 Travon Gray. </span></p>