Let Freedom ring.

Doors open at 2 p.m. Saturday for the annual Freedom Classic Festival that combines basketball with numerous community and cultural activities.

With two for the price of one, the Virginia Union and Virginia State men’s and women’s basketball teams will meet at VSU’s sure-to-be-rocking Multi-Purpose Center in Ettrick.

The games will be in conjunction with the annual Classic (since 1996) that celebrates the life and legacy of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement.

The women will tipoff at 3 p.m. followed by the men around 6 p.m.

What to look for …

Coach Nadine Domond’s VSU women are the talk of the CIAA with No. 10 ranking in the Division II National Coach’s Poll and No. 22 ranking in the NCAA Poll.

The Lady Trojans will carry a 15-1 overall record and 6-1 CIAA mark into Saturday. With 10 straight double-digit scoring outings, 5-foot-5 junior whirlwind Tiyanna James leads VSU in scoring average (14 points), steals (39) and three-pointers (32).

Do-it-all Ny Langley handles most of the heavy lifting for the VUU Lady Panthers, who were 11-6 overall and 4-3 overall entering the week under coach Tierra Terry. Langley, the All-CIAA 5-foot-10 senior from Greenville, N.C., averages 15 points and seven rebounds while adding 28 steals and 32 assists.

The VSU men started the week 8-9 overall and 3-4 in the CIAA under veteran coach Lonnie Blow. The Trojans’ big man in the middle is 6-foot-9 Tremere Brown, averaging 12 points and six boards.

VUU coach Jay Butler has suffered through hard times this season after being virtually wiped out by graduations and defections.

With only two players back from last year’s NCAA qualifier, VUU started the week 6-12 overall and 1-5 in CIAA. The Panthers shifted into a higher gear last week, however, with a 62-48 win at Fayetteville State.

Tahj Harding, one of the two returnees, averages 19 points and is in contention for the CIAA scoring title.

Now get this: VUU has won the last seven meetings against VSU since 2019, including 87-69 and 77-69 victories last season.

The shuttering of the Richmond Coliseum in 2019 caused a major change in the Freedom Classic. The games were traditionally played on the Sunday night at the Coliseum prior to the King holiday on Monday. Attendance for the basketball games has suffered since the Coliseum’s closing. In the early years of the Classic, when Virginia Union was a national power, the Classic drew crowds of close to 10,000 at the Coliseum.

Not so now … last year’s VSU vs. VUU game at the Multi-Purpose Center had listed attendance at 894.

For decades, VUU played its home game against VSU at either the Richmond Arena, Ashe Center or Coliseum (for Freedom Classic). Since then, the VUU home games against the Trojans have been played jam-packed Barco-Stevens. The VSU and VUU men’s and women’s teams will close their regular seasons Feb. 24 at Barco.

All CIAA men’s and women’s teams will compete Feb. 26 - March 3 in the CIAA tournaments in Baltimore.