Close Calls at Curry Classic
At the Ronald Curry Christmas Classic finals on Monday night at Hampton University, things kept coming down to the wire.
Just in time for two teams, the gauntlet swung to their side - and on the way over, it sliced through a pair of undefeated seasons.
Hampton, for which Curry played All-American ball in the 1990s (he also led the football team to two state championships, and now plays in the NFL for Oakland), put its perfect 9-0 season on the line in the Towne Bank final against Norcom, and things didn't start well. Hobbled by nine turnovers and a five-for-26 shooting performance, the Crabbers found themselves behind 25-20 at the half, and Darius Theus extended his squad's lead with a pair of free throws early in the third.
That's when things started going Hampton's way. Chris Johnson and Sean Johnson hit two layups, the first time all night that the Crabbers had dropped in consecutive field goals. Sean and Kevin Starkey scored, and Ben Sawyer drained two free throws to put Hampton up, 30-29. Sean and Sawyer scored again, and two more one-pointers from Starkey gave Hampton a 38-31 advantage with 1:33 left in the half (in just over five minutes, the team had scored 18 points, two fewer than they'd notched the entire first half).
Then Norcom got going again. DeCarlos Anderson sank a jumper, and Theus yanked away a steal and put in a layup to get to 38-35. When Jeremy Canty sank a three-pointer with five seconds left in the quarter, the Greyhounds were back, 39-38.
Anderson put in another basket early in the fourth, and Theus finished a three-point play to put Norcom back up, 43-41. But Hampton grabbed the momentum back, as Sean, Sawyer, Nicholas Chamblee, Raymoan Edwards, and Mershan Monroe went on a 7-2 run to get their squad ahead, 51-45, with just over four minutes to play.
Canty swished another three, and Hampton called timeout. Edwards and Shea Bumphus each missed layups, and Deshawn Williams tied the game with a three-point play at the two-minute mark.
After a Norcom timeout, Starkey missed a three, and Theus was fouled charging through the lane. He sank two freebies for a 53-51 lead.
A pass slipped through Sawyer's hands, and Willie Bunch grabbed it and was fouled. He missed the front end of a one-and-one, but Theus grabbed the rebound, and the Greyhounds passed the ball around until Williams was fouled with nine seconds left. He made both free throws to ice the contest, 55-51.
"I had to slow down, because I'd already had a rough game," said Williams, who made the All-Tournament team. "I had to settle down and knock them down."
Theus, who scored 11 of his 15 points in the second half, was named the division Most Valuable Player.
"We never had any doubt in our minds that we were going to win this game," he said. "We put our will on people, and we have to make them crack before we make them crack." Anderson, who also scored 15 points, made the All-Tournament squad, joined by Sean, Chris, and Warwick's Jimmy Scott.
Bethel 56, King's Fork 54
In the midst of their own 9-0 season, the Bulldogs went after the squad that knocked them out of last year's Eastern Region tournament in the Allen Iverson Crossover Crew tourney final. However, like Hampton, Fork sputtered at first, as a stifling Bethel defense shut them down on the way to a 15-5 lead early on. But Jaquon Parker breathed new life into his squad with six points in 80 seconds, and a breakaway layup from Derek Wright cut the lead to 15-13. One Davante Gardner jumper later, the scored was tied, and Wright sank a three-pointer to give Fork a 20-17 lead with just under five minutes left in the half.
Jeremy Saunders' first points of the night gave the Bruins a 23-20 lead, but Jamar Wertz hit a three of his own, and Wright and Parker scored to give Fork a 27-23 halftime advantage.
Things went back and forth at high speed in the third, with neither squad notching more than two straight field goals for the first four minutes. After a three from Wright put Fork up 38-34, Jontel Evans was fouled making a layup, and sank the free throw to get within one. He and Ovie Soko scored for a 41-38 lead, and Soko hit a free throw to open the fourth to get to 42-40.
Dominique Patterson and Wright sank long shots for Fork, and Gardner banked home a layup for a 50-46 lead. Tre Lee cut the lead to one, but Gardner hit two free throws, and King's Fork got a jump ball with 1:49 on the clock. Twelve seconds later, Gardner sank another layup, getting a five-point lead.
A wide-open Soko sank his first three of the game, and a traveling call gave Bethel back the ball. With one minute left, the Bruins called their final timeout.
Evans made his way toward the left corner, and nearly stumbled as he tried to juke back up the court. He turned, and fired a straight pass to Soko near the top of the key, and another three-pointer was good, putting Bethel up, 55-54.
"I can tell when a shot's going to go in," Soko said. "I was pretty confident when I took it."
Parker bolted through the lane, but was called for charging with 13 seconds left. Lee got the ball and a foul, and hit one free throw with :08 on the clock. A last-ditch shot from Wertz hit the backboard and rim and bounced off, and the Bruins had escaped.
"We knew it was going to be a close game, and we wanted to finish strong," said Evans, whose 16 points got him the MVP award. Gardner, who also scored 16, made the All-Tournament team, rounded out by Lee, Booker T. Washington's Desmond Lee, and Woodside's Stephen Stepka.
Norview 64, Lake Taylor 52
In the Family Redirection final, Norview used a 21-12 second-quarter rush to break open a close game and score their second victory of the season over the Titans. Malcolm Hawkins finished a division MVP performance with 22 points and 15 rebounds, and Keshawn Lee's 18 points and 10 rebounds landed him on the All-Division squad.
"Don't let up," Hawkins said of his team's strategy. "The coaches always tell us, if we're not first, we're last. We approached this game as being the aggressor."
Lake Taylor's Shannon McCorey and Mario Rowson also made All-Tournament, as did Hawkins' teammate Keshawn Lee, Green Run's Jordan Davidson (Norview beat Run in the semifinals) and Maury's Jamal Ferguson.
