Darnel “Burger” Hendrickson found his shooting touch and the Hoyas avoided back to back defeats in the New Breed Basketball Association summer league by beating a tough Guidance squad, 107-96.
Wednesday night’s contest was a battle for second place during the final game of the regular season in the Educational Complex Gymnasium.
Hendrickson was not as harassed by Guidance as he had been by the unbeaten Chosen Ones, but the going was not much easier, either. But this time he was more aggressive, attacking the defense, drawing fouls and getting to the charity stripes for 10 of his game high 32 points.
A nice crowd came out to see the game, not nearly as large as the Hoyas-Chosen Ones contest, but pretty decent just the same, and for three quarters they were treated to some of the most exciting basketball of the season. Guidance’s Calvert White brought the crowd to its feet with a thunderous dunk over a couple of Hoyas defenders on an alley-oop from Jermaine Mully.
Defense ruled the day in the opening period and after one quarter only one point separated the teams, with Guidance holding a 24-23 advantage. Guidance’s White and the Hoyas’ Karl John led their respective teams with eight points apiece in the opening stanza.
The second quarter was just as tightly played as the first, but this time it was the Hoyas eked out a 23-22 advantage in the period, and the game was all squared at 46 at intermission. Burger led the Hoyas second quarter attack with eight points and Karl John dropped in six, while Guidance got scores from nine players.
Hendrickson hit a three-pointer to start the second half and the Hoyas went on a 9-0 run to jump out to a 55-46 lead. But back came Guidance with an 11-2 run highlighted by two three-pointers by White and the score was all tied at 57 with two minutes left in the third. An exchange of three pointers by the Hoyas’ Omari Applewaite and White and the teams were once again deadlocked at 60. The Hoyas then outscored their opponents 14-6 to go up 74-66, only to see Guidance roar back with a 7-0 run to close out the third quarter down just one point, at 74-73. Hendrickson and Kurt John led the Hoyas with nine and six points respectively while White and Richard isles both netted eight f or Guidance in the period.
The Hoyas outscored Guidance 19-11 in the first 4:16 of the fourth quarter and never looked back. Led by 15 points by Andre McIntosh in the final period, the defending champs cruised the rest of the way to a 107-96 victory to claim sole possession of second place as the regular season came to an end.
Hendrickson led the Hoyas with a game-high 32 points, Karl John netted 21 points, grabbed 13 rebounds and dished off four assist, MacIntosh dropped in 16 and Kurt John and Applewaite finished with 12 and 16 points respectively for the Hoyas. Malik Hodge led four players in double figures with 23 points. Calvert White netted 21 points, grabbed 10 rebounds, and dished out seven assists, Theron Jones scored 16 and Isles had 10.
