With a pair of big Battlefield District games against Chancellor and Courtland on tap next week, the Eastern View boys basketball team could have easily fallen into the trap of overlooking Friday's matchup with King George.
The Cyclones didn't quite take the bait, but it still took everything they had to stave off a valiant upset bid by the Foxes.
Gio Maxie scored 17 points, the last eight of which came during a pivotal 24-4 run over the contest's final six-plus minutes, as Eastern View earned a hard-fought 60-49 road victory.
The win keeps the Cyclones (8-1 overall, 7-1 Battlefield) tied atop the district standings with Courtland (8-1, 7-1), which hammered James Monroe 68-45 Friday. The two squads are scheduled to square off next Friday at Eastern View—a rematch of the Cyclones' 66-54 victory back on Jan. 11.
"This one was tough," Eastern View head coach Patrick Thornhill said after Friday's tilt. "It's always difficult to play here, and [King George] made it really hard on us tonight."
King George's Javon Campbell converted a three-point play in the opening seconds of the fourth quarter, capping a 13-2 outburst that began midway through the third period and gave the Foxes (1-6, 1-6) a 45-36 lead and all the momentum they could ask for.
Campbell, a senior forward, tallied eight of his 15 points during the run. He also finished the night with a double-double, pulling down 14 rebounds.
Then, it was as if the Cyclones flipped a switch and turned the game on its ear.
Eastern View's furious rally began with nine straight points. Senior point guard D'Aze Hunter got things started by sinking a pair of free throws, then junior forward Rickey Butler added a layup. A Maxie 3-pointer and a layup by junior forward Corey Long followed, tying the score at 45-all with 4:30 left to play.
While King George retook the lead at 47-45 after a basket by freshman Mekhai White on the ensuing trip down the floor, it was short-lived. Long knotted things back up immediately with another bucket in the paint, and then Maxie followed up a steal and a layup with another trey—his fifth of the contest—to put the Cyclones up 52-47.
Hunter, who recorded 14 points, four rebounds, four assists and four steals in the game, tacked on two more free throws and a pair of layups in the final two minutes to seal the come-from-behind win.
"It felt like we were stuck trying to run in quicksand for three-plus quarters," Thornhill said of his team's performance. "It was like our legs just weren't with us until we got a spark there in the fourth quarter, and then everything turned."
Thornhill pointed to the play of D'Myo Hunter as one of the reasons Eastern View came alive down the stretch.
"His energy gave us a real boost," Thornhill said of the freshman guard, who totaled four points, three assists and two fourth-quarter steals that both led directly to points. "He came off the bench and just played hard, and that really got us going at the right time."
Maxie, a senior guard, managed to score all 17 of his points despite severely jamming the thumb on his right (shooting) hand while deflecting a Foxes pass late in the opening stanza.
"I felt a pop [in the thumb]," Maxie recalled. "And at one point I hit it again. The trainer kept trying to keep me out of the game, but I told him to just tape it up so I could get back out there. I had to help my team out; all of these games are important, regardless of the opponent."
Long, who finished with 15 points, seven rebounds, six steals and three assists, identified with Maxie's moxie.
"All the credit to King George," he remarked. "They were out there battling us all night long. We had to hang in there and just play our game, and we were tough enough to do that and come away with a win."
King George committed 10 of its 23 total turnovers during the contest's final seven minutes, a problem that first-year head coach Neil Lyburn couldn't pin down to just one factor.
"The kids' hearts are in the right place," Lyburn said. "I see it in how hard they practice and how hard they play. Some of our troubles are due to inexperience and only having three seniors on the roster, but you can't blame youth for everything."
Sophomore forward Nehemiah Frye turned in a 15-point, eight-rebound effort to complement Campbell's performance for the Foxes.
Before its potential first-place showdown with Courtland, Eastern View will look to avenge its only loss thus far this winter when it hosts Chancellor on Wednesday. The Chargers beat the Cyclones 74-59 on Jan. 8.
Eastern View (8-1, 7-1): Amaree Robinson 0, Rickey Butler 6, Gio Maxie 17, DAze Hunter 14, Corey Long 15, Dom Sasso 0, D'Myo Hunter 4, T.J. Coles 0, Taharka Siaca Bey 4. Totals: 23 8-17 60.
King George (1-6, 1-6): Elijah Sherfield 2, Jaden Hobdy 0, Javon Campbell 15, Von Whiting 5, Ethan Chase 5, Mekhai White 7, Nehemiah Frye 15, Joe Billingsley 0. Totals: 19 7-12 49.
3-pointers: Eastern View 6 (Maxie 5, D'Aze Hunter). King George 4 (Frye 2, Chase, White).
