HHBA Lightning Win National Tournament
By: Cody Elliott
It was a special weekend for one of Harrisonburg’s own.
The HHBA Lightning, part of the Harrisonburg High School Basketball Association and a competitive organization competing on the local boys basketball scene that recently finished as runner-up in the state tournament at Horizons Edge, built off that success on a bigger scale.
Over the weekend at the East Coast Homeschool Basketball National 2023 in Gatlinburg, TN., the Lightning was able to bring home a tournament win with a string of big-time victories.
In the tournament, which featured 36 teams from Texas, Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, Kentucky, Indiana, Michigan, South Carolina, Virginia, and more, HHBA ha to win six games in four days and get through a nine-team pool just to ultimately come out on top at the end.
The result was the Lightning ultimately defeating the top-seeded Chatham Thunder, who entered on a four-game winning streak by 20 points or more after trailing by 13 in the fourth quarter. HHBA rallied back and devised an overtime win to seal the thrilling victory.
“This was definitely the most incredible run I’ve ever been a part of,” Lightning head coach Lane Lockard said. “There were three close wins against really good teams. We wanted to send our senior, Jacob Nichols, off with a championship. March truly is madness. What a magical run.”
Jackson Lockard was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player and the player of the year in the state of Virginia, while teammate Liam Velker was a first-team all-state selection.
Overall, the HHBA Lightning took the lessons learned from a second-place finish at the state tournament at Horizons Edge earlier this month and applied it positively in Tennessee.
Now, they are coming back to the Friendly City with some hardware in hand.
“This was a pretty special run for us,” Lane Lockard said. “We were able to win this tournament a year earlier than we though we would because of youth, and we sent Jacob off with a title.”
