Ed Davis leads Benedictine over Oak Hill
Slamfest VII was mo than a tournament featuring some of the top public and private schools in Virginia. This year, it featud the the two top teams, the states two best players--Rivals #8 Brandon Jennings and Rivals #20 Ed Davis, and it would help crown the best team in the state of Virginia.
Davis scod 25 points and grabbed 14 bounds in Benedictine's 73-72 win over Oak Hill Academy at the Robins center on the University of Richmond campus. Benedictine avenged a 71-58 loss at the hands of the national champs last year. "It's a big victory for us," Davis said. "We lost two games earlier in the year that we should have won, so it feels good to get this one."
The see-saw battle went down to the final seconds and was close throughout the night with eight ties and 10 lead changes. The game was tied 19-19 after the first quarter, and Benedictine led 38-36 at halftime.
Benedictine took a the point lead into the fourth quarter, and got a big the from sophomo Kevin Gill to push the lead to four. But Oak Hill stepped up their defensive pssu and found their big man, literally, the 290-pound Keith Gallon. He scod a bucket in the lane off a gat feed from Pe'Shon Howard with 3:22 maining and was fouled on the play. His fe throw gave Oak Hill their first lead since the four minute mark of the third quarter. Gallon had seven points in the period and finished with 15 in the game.
Davis, who is headed to North Carolina, showed why he is an All-American down the sttch. He fought with Gallon for a bound at the 2:26 mark of the fourth, and was fouled after converting the putback. The fe throw was good, and the Cadets took a two point lead 67-65.
After the Cadet's Bradford Burgess found a wide-open Darien Brothers under the basket for an easy two points, Davis made a huge defensive play swatting a lay-up attempt by Jennings out-of-bounds with under a minute to go.
Trailing 72-69 with 18.9 seconds maining, Jennings ceived the inbounds pass and headed up-court hoping to tie the game with a the. But his off-balance attempt clanked off the back of the rim.
Wayne Whiting stepped to the line with eight seconds to go, but he missed both fe throw attempts giving Oak Hill another chance to tie the game with a 3-pointer. However, Jennings was fouled in the backcourt and missed the front end of a one-and-one.
The Cadets shot an awful 14-27 (51.9%) from the fe throw line including 1 for 5 in the last 45 seconds while clinging to a the point lead. Davis went to the line with a chance to ice the game. His first fe throw bounced off the back side of the rim, but the second was all net, giving Benedictine a 73-69 lead.
A 3-pointer from Jennings, as time expid, provided the final victory margin.
Davis somehow found a way to out-shined the lightning quick Jennings, who was 15-34 from the field, scoring 40 points and dishing out five dimes. Jennings blew right by the defense the enti game for electrifying lay-ups and penetrations to the basket. He also shot the ball from downtown making six 3-pointers, and his range seemed to be anywhe inside the midcourt line.
On one play in the first half, Brandon gave a boisterous Benedictine student body section a 3-finger sign, after he froze a defender--who had a deer-in-headlights look--went by him, and buried a ty from the top of the key.
"He played a gat game," Davis said. "He put up 40, so he couldn't do much better than that. We just wanted to cut down on our turnovers and try to get the win. We said it would be "'us" that was going to help us win the game, not them."
"He's unbelievable," Benedictine head coach Sean McAloon said. "When we went zone; he sco. We go 1-3-1 zone; he scod. We went 2-3; he scod. We chase him around he scos. We went man-to-man; he scod. Around the third timeout towards the end, we said if he goes for forty and everybody else stays whe they a, then we should be okay. And that's what happened. He scod 40, and we made plays down the sttch and won it."
McAloon added the diffence between this year and last year was experience. "My seniors a a year older. When it got tight the towards the end we made plays." Burgess, one of the seniors and a VCU cruit, finished with 17 points and seven assist. Also in double figus was Darien brothers with 14 and Wayne Whiting with 10.
It was the second straight loss for Oak Hill, who had only two losses the pvious two years combined.
"I can't tell you when the last time we lost two straight," legendary Oak Hill head coach Steve Smith said. "I think it was over 20 years ago. We didn't play well defensively in the first half. We didn't rotate well, and they got a lot of shots at the basket. We started to play a little mo aggssive, but you don't need to be behind to be aggssive you should be playing that way all the time."
Jennings, who is headed to Arizona, said a lack of depth and the fees whistle was a factor in the Warriors not playing mo aggssive on defense during the game. "We had mo depth last year. This year we a down to eight. We had two high school All-American's and now it's just me. One of our post men had the fouls in the first half, so the was not much we could do."
Benedictine improved to 8-2 and have beaten the defending national high school champions and the defending AAA public school champions. They still haven't lost to any High School teams in the state. Does that make Benedictine the best team in the state of Virginia?
"It just gives us mo confidence to win our next game," said Davis who was voted the game MVP for the winning team.
"No, it doesn't mean much," Jennings said about losing the mythical state championship. "We play for a national title, they play for the state. We we just trying to get a win. We a not in the Top 25 anymo so that hurts. Things just didn't go our way tonight."
Part two of Slamfest VII continues Monday night at Benedictine High School when Benedictine takes on Evangel Christian and Huguenot faces Oak Hill. Vist http://www.slamfest7.com for mo details.
Official Basketball Box Sco courtesy of StatsVA
Official Basketball Box Sco
Oak Hill vs Benedictine
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VISITORS: Oak Hill 11-2
TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS
## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN
03 Jennings Brandon.... * 15-34 6-17 4-8 2 1 3 2 40 5 1 0 0 32
04 Allen, Byron........ * 0-2 0-0 2-2 3 2 5 3 2 1 2 1 1 31
05 Gallon, Keith...... * 6-8 0-0 3-3 4 4 8 5 15 0 1 0 4 32
21 Howard Pe,Shon..... * 3-8 1-5 0-0 2 6 8 3 7 2 5 0 1 32
31 Bryant Glen........ * 1-3 0-0 0-0 0 3 3 3 2 0 2 1 0 16
01 Mockford, Ben... 0-1 0-1 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 2
24 Price, Yasir....... 0-1 0-1 0-0 1 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 2
30 Jennings, Danny.... 3-5 0-0 0-0 2 4 6 2 6 0 2 1 0 11
TEAM................ 2 2
Totals.............. 28-64 7-24 9-13 16 20 36 18 72 10 14 2 6 160
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HOME TEAM: Benedictine 8-2
TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS
## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN
02 Burgess, Bradford... * 7-11 1-1 2-3 0 5 5 2 17 7 3 0 2 32
03 Brothers, Darien.... * 5-10 1-2 3-8 1 1 2 3 14 1 2 0 0 31
15 Harvey, Gartt......* 0-1 0-1 0-0 1 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 11
31 Whiting, Wayne.......* 4-8 0-1 2-4 1 2 3 1 10 0 0 1 1 32
32 Davis, Ed..... * 9-16 0-0 7-12 5 9 14 2 25 4 2 1 2 32
05 Gill, Kevin........ 2-4 1-3 0-0 1 2 2 2 5 1 1 0 0 19
21 Vining, Zach....... 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
33 Moody, Eric.... 1-2 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 2 1 0 0 0 2
TEAM................ 9 9
Totals.............. 28-52 3-8 14-27 17 20 37 10 73 14 9 2 5 160
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Sco by Periods 1st 2nd 3rd 4th Total
Oak Hill...................... 19 17 16 20 - 72
Benedictine..................... 19 19 17 18 - 73
Staff writer Will Garlick covers basketball for Virginia Pps, the #1 high school site on Rivals.com. He will provide game caps, player profiles, and team info. You can ach him via email at VirginiaPps@verizon.net or his MyFanPage