WEST POINT — A lot can change in a week.
After consecutive victories last week against West Point and Oxford, New Hope High School boys basketball coach Drew McBrayer thought his team was primed to complete a trifecta that would have helped it wrap up the top seed for the district tournament.
Coach Brad Cox and the West Point High Green Wave had other plans.
A.J. Jones scored a game-high 20 points off the bench Tuesday night to lead West Point to a 63-53 victory in a Class 5A, Division 2, District 1 victory.
“A.J. carried us tonight,” Cox said of his 5-foot-4 freshman point guard. “He played great. He finished around the rim so well. You wouldn”t think a guy his size would be able to finish, but he hangs in the air so well and he is able to avoid contact.”
Kelsei Ewings had a game-high 24 points to lead four players in double figures in the West Point High girls team”s 71-43 victory against New Hope.
In the boys game, Laquintis Robertson had 11 points, Daryl Thomas added eight, and Cortez Malone and Arrington Lenoir had six apiece to help West Point (11-10, 4-1 district) set up a meeting against Oxford at 7:30 p.m. Thursday for a chance to earn the top seed in the district tournament, which will be at West Point.
“That is where you want to be at the end of the season,” Cox said. “You want to control your destiny. Going to Oxford and winning won”t be easy. We will have to bring our ”A” game, but we control our destiny, and that is right where we want to be.”
The victory also avenged a 69-68 overtime loss to the Trojans last week in Columbus. New Hope was the more aggressive team down the stretch in that meeting, but West Point set the tone from the beginning, using a 2-2-1 full-court press to help it establish tempo. The Green Wave took the ball to the basket more and attacked the offensive glass to put the Trojans back on their heels.
“We really haven”t put four quarters together in a game,” Cox said. “The big thing to me was the third quarter because they outscored us by 11 in the third quarter at New Hope. We talked about that all week and at halftime, so we knew we were going to have to play.”
West Point used an 8-2 run to start the second half to deny New Hope a chance of stealing the momentum.
McBrayer said last week after the victory he believed his team finally had found the fight it was going to need entering the postseason. The momentum carried over to a victory at Oxford to end the week, but it somehow didn”t find its way to Clay County.
“We just came out flat,” McBrayer said. “I don”t know how when the regular-season district championship is on the line you can come out that flat. I don”t think we played with any energy in the first half. We didn”t play with very much toughness in the first half. With our size and out skill level, you”re not going to beat many teams doing that.
Lawrence Brown had 18 points and Jamal Richardson added 13, but New Hope didn”t pick up its pace until the fourth quarter after trailing 57-33 with 5 minutes, 30 seconds remaining. West Point went 3 of 10 from the free-throw line in the final 41.4 seconds, while New Hope hit three 3-pointers. But the fireworks only trimmed the deficit to 61-53 with 21.1 seconds to play.
“I thought they were ready,” McBrayer said. “I thought we had gotten over this. I thought we were prepared. It just didn”t work, at all.”
McBrayer praised the play of West Point. He said the Green Wave”s athleticism makes it difficult to block them out. Still, he expected a much better effort from his team after a 55-54 win at Oxford.
“The saddest thing is we took care of the first two (to win the regular season),” McBrayer said. “To come out with the energy and effort we gave tonight is beyond me.”
West Point”s defense also was a key in the girls game. The Lady Green Wave (18-3) got into passing lanes and were more aggressive than they were in a 66-61 victory against the Lady Trojans last week. The more intense effort on defense forced 20 turnovers and created 17 steals.
West Point coach Jemmye Ann Helms said her team has been working on its player-to-player defense in practice and showed signs Tuesday of playing with the energy it will need in the postseason.
“We went a few games when we did not play very aggressive, and we still did not block out the way I would like to see us block out,” Helms said. “We can always improve on that and on our defense, but we pressured the ball so well. In the second half we got a lot of rips and layups real quick.”
Helms said West Point wanted to play tougher defensively against New Hope”s young backcourt, especially after the Lady Trojans played so well last week in Columbus. Ewings led the charge with six steals.
“We”re pretty close (to being where we need to be defensively),” Helms said. “We did take some possessions off … , but if you don”t get the rebound, that”s what I don”t like. Sometimes we don”t block out and rebound too well.”
A win by West Point on Thursday at Oxford would set up a tiebreaker. Oxford, which is undefeated in the district, beat West Point 72-57 on Jan. 21. The district tournament will start next week.
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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