Win over Lville caps basketball tourney; girls fall in final
By Bob Nuse, Sports Editor
LAWRENCEVILLE — Despite numerous close calls that didn’t go their way this season, the Hun School boys’ basketball team never lost confidence.
And playing with its confidence as high as it has been all season, the Raiders strung together three straight victories this past weekend to captured the Mid-Atlantic Prep League championship.
The Raiders opened with a win over Peddie on Friday, then upset top-seeded Blair on Saturday before winning the title with a 62-44 win over Lawrenceville on Sunday for their second MAPL title in three years.
”I think we have been slowly coming together as the season has gone on, which is what you want out of any season,” said Hun coach Jon Stone, whose team is 12-13 after the three wins this weekend. “You want to try to peak at the right time. I think we did. We knew as well as the rest of the teams in our league that just about anybody could win this. I think knowing that going in always helps as well.”
The three wins were the first time this season the Raiders have won three straight games. And the win at Lawrenceville on Sunday was their first against the Big Red in Stone’s 10 years as head coach.
The Hun girls lost in the MAPL final to Peddie, 66-50, on Sunday. It was the fifth straight year that the Raiders have lost to the Falcons in the final.
The Hun girls cut a 31-22 halftime deficit to 31-26 on baskets by Arielle Collins and Cyndra Couch. Peddie then went on an 11-0 run to build a 16-point advantage.
”The ironic thing is, I don’t necessarily really pay attention to the score,” Hun coach Bill Holup said. “I’m just looking at us playing. Peddie has the ability to go on those quick runs, where in the blink of an eye they’re up 10, 12, 15 points. I wasn’t paying too much attention to it. I just wanted us to try and execute as well as we could offensively and defensively. We made some mistakes, a couple shots went in and out. It is what it is.”
For the Hun boys, the biggest difference over the weekend was the play on the defensive end of the court. That was especially true in Saturday’s win over Blair.
”Our defense has been tremendous,” Stone said after the Blair win. “Mikerson (Laurent) must have gotten his hand on six balls down there at the end. But it wasn’t just him. Everyone else was tremendous as well rotating. Egheosa (Edomwonyi) was getting his hands on balls. Ollie (Davis), R.J. (Griffin), Jon (Lee), everyone was incredible.
”It’s a great win. They’re a great program and a great team. They’re very well coached. It’s always a good win for us.”
The win over Blair avenged two earlier losses suffered by the Raiders, while the win over Lawrenceville avenged an overtime loss earlier this season.
”The first time we played Blair we lost by a lot,” said Lee, who scored 22 points and had 11 rebounds in the win over Lawrenceville after scoring 22 and adding seven assists without a turnover against Blair. “The second time we lost at the buzzer. We knew what we had to do, so we came out with the fire. They were not going to beat us three times in a row. We had lost five games in overtime or right at the end. We’ve been up and down, but we were ready for post-season play.”
At one point this season, the Raiders were just 7-12. But they had won two of three games coming into the MAPL tournament and now are in a position to get to .500 with a win over Pennington on Wednesday.
”We have been playing great together the last couple of weeks,” Lee said. “Everyone was confident. Our mindset was right. We’ve all been in the gym shooting after practice. We’ve been in the gym on days off. We just wanted to work and keep getting better.”
The Raiders certainly appear to have put it all together at just the right time. And now they’ll carry their momentum into the state Prep A tournament, which begins Saturday with a game at Lawrenceville.
”We had a good sense coming in,” Stone said. “We have been doing a lot of good things. We had a real tough loss against Life Center, yet I thought we played well enough to win in that game and we just didn’t win. We have slowly been building up to some of this, but you never know for sure.
”It is going to be very, very tough in the Prep A. We have to come right back here and play the same team. They’re very, very good. Obviously we are hoping to get another win, but it’s going to be very tough.”