Final.

Holmes controlled this one from early on, even though JJ was in early foul trouble. They led by 13 I believe at Half and were up as much as 24 in the game.

Another good crowd, Congrats to Lloyd for a nicely run tournament.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for the great basketball entertainment!

 

paNDA

Scoring for both teams:

 

Holmes: Pittman 16, K. Rice 10, Slusher 8, Hayes 6, R. Johnson 5, J. Johnson 4, D. Rice 4, Herndon 2, Gray 2, Amison 1

 

Bryan Station: Evans 9, Webb 7, Barner 5, Renfro 5, Waide 3, Fain 3, Balfour 2, Adams 2, Smothers 1.

 

Holmes (9-3): 15-13-15-15--58

B. Station (7-6): 12-5-3-18--38

Holmes came out and set the tone early in this game.

 

After a back and forth 1st quarter, Holmes dominated the second and third quarters.

 

Jeremiah Johnson picked up his 2nd foul just minutes in to the game and Holmes bench responded in a big way. Hayes, Herndon, and Mayfield played suffocating defense on the Station guards and frustrated them in to bad shots the whole night.

 

With Holmes leading 13-12, Herndon hit a baseline jumper as time expired in the first quarter and Holmes would use a 27-6 run between the second and third quarters to push their lead out to 43-20 heading in to the final period.

 

Holmes would push their lead out to as many as 26 with around 3 minutes to go when Henley finally cleared his bench and brought the subs in. Sophomore Dontel Rice scored the first 4 points of his varsity career and Station closed the game on a 9-3 run to give you the final of 58-38.

After tonight, I feel a lot more confident in Holmes' bench. Herndon, Mayfield, McClendon, and Hayes all played quality minutes throughout the game and looked good while doing so.

 

As long as Holmes has three of their big guys in (Rice, Pittman, R. Johnson, J. Johnson) to match up with the front court of the opposing team, it doesn't really matter what guards they put in with them. All 4 of those guys flat got after it on defense tonight. They may not be as skilled offensively as the big 4, but good defense leads to offense and that's exactly what happened tonight.

 

Holmes put 9 guys in the scoring column without Mayfield or McClendon scoring and Avery being on the bench on crutches and in a boot. Their depth really impressed me tonight. If they continue to progress the way they have through this tournament, Holmes is going to be very tough come March.

 

Both Rice and Pittman looked very good tonight for Holmes. Nobody for Station could rebound with Pittman and Rice continually drew fouls when driving and came up with several big rebounds.

All tournament team consisted of the following players:

 

Campbell Co: Brady Jolly

Beechwood: John Pohlgeers

Conner: Tim Lang, Jacob Flesch

Newport: Demarko Foster, Anthony Luther

Bryan Station: Joe Fain, Phil Barner, James Evans

Holmes: Ricardo Johnson, Willie Slusher, Kevon Rice, MVP: Jermiah Johnson

BTW, spoke with Dave Henley after the game and he said Avery will be out around 3 weeks. He was on the bench tonight in a t shirt and sweat pants with a boot on his foot and crutches.

Hope Avery has a speedy recovery.

 

He will make Holmes really good when he comes back. This will just improve and continue to add more size and athletic ability, but more than anything else he is another shooter that Holmes can use.