Down the Line: Former Nansemond River guard Dontrell Brite is playing sixth Brazilian pro basketball season
Even amid the World Cup frenzy and then disappointment Friday, Brazil hosts professional basketball. A Chesapeake native has been a part of it for six years.
Dontrell Brite, a 5-foot-9 point guard, is playing a key role for Bauru during his sixth pro season in the NBB (Novo Basquete Brasil).
Brite, 28, is averaging 9.7 points, 4.0 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 0.9 steals per game in his second season with Bauru, a team in the southeast part of the country and based in the state of São Paulo.
In his team’s last game, which preceded a break of more than two weeks, he helped Bauru improve to 5-4 with team highs of 17 points, 10 rebounds and four assists in a 92-48 triumph over Rio Claro Basquete. Bauru holds sixth place among 17 NBB teams.
Brite played for Suffolk’s Nansemond River High and Division II Mount Olive of North Carolina before turning pro. In 120 games for Mount Olive, the last 93 of which he started from 2013-16, he averaged 13.5 points, 4.0 assists and 2.8 rebounds. He was the 2015 Conference Carolinas Player of the Year, and he competed for one season for Liga Sorocabana and three years for Basquete Cearense before going to Bauru.
Portsmouth team wins one at nationals: The Churchland Tigers of Portsmouth went 1-1 this week at the Pop Warner National Championships near Orlando, Florida.
Playing in the 14-and-under Division 1 bracket, they fell 28-14 to the Jupiter Mustangs of Florida in the first round, then edged the Los Gatos Longhorns of California 13-11 in a consolation game.
Former ODU coach’s son aims for NJCAA title: Drew Wilder, a Jamestown High graduate, has played on the offensive line in several games for the Iowa Western Reivers (9-2), who have advanced to the National Junior College Athletic Association championship game. They will meet Hutchinson Community College (11-0) of Kansas at 9 p.m. Wednesday in Little Rock, Arkansas, hoping to avenge a 29-28 regular-season loss a month ago.
The 6-foot-3, 320-pound redshirt freshman — the only Virginian on the team — is being cheered by his father, Bobby Wilder, the first coach of 21st-century Old Dominion football. Iowa Western, located in Council Bluffs, was seeded third in the playoffs and defeated second-seeded host Northwest Mississippi Community College 33-12 last Sunday.
What’s coming up
Sunday: William & Mary’s women’s basketball team will play host to its former Colonial Athletic Association rival James Madison at 1 p.m. at Kaplan Arena. ... At 2 p.m., one of Norfolk State’s strongest women’s basketball teams will try to spring an upset at Old Dominion’s Chartway Arena. ... The Hampton men, unbeaten at home though winless away from the Convocation Center, will try to keep their home success going when they face Bowling Green. The Falcons (3-5), from Ohio, have beaten Air Force, Oakland and Morgan State.
Wednesday: Norfolk State will host a basketball doubleheader at Echols Hall, with the women meeting Regent at 5:30 p.m. and the men facing Bowling Green at 8 p.m.
Friday/Saturday: The festive events of the BayPort Credit Union Surf-n-Santa 5 Miler, based at the Virginia Beach Convention Center, start with the Rudolph’s 1K at 6:15 p.m. Friday. On Saturday, the 5-mile race is set for 4:30, followed by a postrace party.
Saturday: The Junior League of Hampton Roads Jingle Jog in Williamsburg is set for 9:30 a.m. with a 1-mile fun run, followed by a 5K at 10 a.m. The race will start at Billsburg Brewery and will be an out-and-back race on the Virginia Capitol Trailhead. ... The Raptor Chapter Ugly Sweater Run will start at 9 a.m. Saturday at Newport News Park. The 5K race benefits the Air Force Sergeants Association.
