The Richmonder Article

The varsity basketball team held off St. Anne's-Belfield 56-53 Saturday, February 21 to win the Prep League tournament title. It is the program's first VPL tourney crown since 2000, when head coach Hamill Jones '00 was a captain. It is also the first time in school history that StC won both the regular-season and tournament titles.

The Saints led throughout buoyed by Darius Gray '26 (27 points, 15 boards - game highs), Damari Smith '29 (14 points) and Brady Burnette '27 (12 points), but couldn't pull away from STAB. An 8-point and 7-point advantage in the fourth quarter quickly dissipated, adding another StC-STAB championship classic to the record book.

StC's latest three championship-game visits were all against STAB (2016, 2022, 2024), each ending in tough, close losses for StC. The Charlottesville Saints were aiming to put more heartbreak into the StC faithful, but the home team and No. 1 seed pulled it out with timely defense and good enough free-throw shooting down the stretch, sending Saints faithful onto Scott Gym's floor at the final buzzer.

“St. Anne’s-Belfield is a championship program,” Jones told The Richmonder. “We knew they were going to bring a great effort. It took everything we had and a lot of resilience and competitiveness to pull out the win.”

All-Tournament Team
Darius Gray, MVP
Brady Burnette, St. Christopher's
Jayden Brown, STAB
Hayden Morris, STAB
Jackson Rutley, TES
Cade Ellis, Woodberry