by Stephen M. Lewis
DigitalSports Richmond
slewis@digitalsports.com
What wonders a loss can do.
After Collegiate upset John Marshall last Saturday, the defending Central Region champions refocused.
Now everyone is seeing the team it expected, as Travis McKie poured in a career-high 37 points to lead John Marshall, ranked second in the latest DigitalSports Top 10, to a 92-70 victory over No. 4 Huguenot in the John Marshall Showcase.
“We wanted to get out here and play as a family,” McKie said. “We wanted to come out here and make the people feel good.”
A standing-room only crowd raised the heat index in John Marshall’s gym, as former greats like Warren Peebles and Milton Bell of JM and Bo Jones Jr. (Huguenot assistant, girls coach) and Ted Berry watched.
But no one cared about the temperature, as the two top-notch city teams played to a standstill in the first half.
McKie dropped in 13 points in the first quarter, including three 3-pointers, as JM led 22-9 at the end of the first. That’s when Huguenot started to find its range from behind the arc.
The Falcons nailed 11 3-pointers in the contest, five in the second quarter en route to 31 points.
David Brown gave buddy and point-guard counterpart Randall Ward fits in the period, scoring 11 points, including three treys for the Falcons, who suffered their first loss.
“It was an opportunity for us and for John Marshall to play in front of
the community, relatives, loved ones,” Jones said. “Everything went
well the first half. I commend coach Frank Threatts for his leadership towards that second half.”
The much-improved Brown led Huguenot with 19 points, but was held to five in the second half, which belonged to Jayem.
The Justices went on an 11-2 bolt to start the half, paced by Maurice Johnson, who had 18 points in the game for the Justices.
Jones used two quick timeouts to try to stop JM’s run, but the Justices had found their inside-, outside- and mid-range groove.
The coup de grace came with two minutes to go in the third period. Ward directed McKie inside on a smaller defender. The 6-7 junior put on an Hakeem Olajuwon-type fake and scored as the JM faithful went nuts.
The Falcons raced the ball up the floor, but McKie detered Brown’s shot as it got back to Ward. The senior found Quantae Cooley who dropped it off to a trailing Johnson for a two-hand slam that brought the house down.
At that point it was 65-48 John Marshall.
“John Marshall shot extremely well, extremely well,” Jones said. “We were struggling to get it into the basket. This is the time where you need to bring your A-game both halves.”
Huguenot also got good efforts from Sean Brown (12 points), Jonathan Crawley (11), Trevor Williamson (11) and Corey Sheppard (eight), but was without Juan Wilson (ankle injury).
Randall Braxton put up stellar numbers for JM (14 points and 10 rebounds), while Ward contributed 12 points and eight assists to go along with Ernest Brown‘s relentless effort inside.
“The kids played well. They fooled me,” Threatts said. “They were back here laughing and joking [before the game]. I didn’t know what type of mindset they would have. But as soon as they hit the floor, they played real good ball. They played the way they are capable of playing. The way we would like to see them play all the time.”
In the first boys game, Freire Charter of Philadelphia (Pa.) topped Armstrong 72-52. Octavious Booker led Charter with 27 points, and Jabrill Trawick added 18 points.
Armstrong was paced by Xavier Gary‘s 19 points, as the Wildcats will take on Huguenot Saturday at 4 p.m., as Friere’s athletic squad matches up with John Marshall at 6.
“Calm, calm everybody down,” Threatts said. “They like to play fast, we like to play fast. Well, we’ll see who’s the fastest.”
John Marshall 22 18 27 25 – 92
Huguenot 9 31 13 17 – 70
John Marshall (8-1): Ward 12, M. Johnson 18, Cooley 8, E. Johnson 0, McKie 37, Brown 3, Braxton 14. Totals: 36 15-21 92. 3-point goals: McKie 4, Ward.
Huguenot (6-1): De. Brown 3, Da. Brown 19, Sheppard 8, S. Brown 12, Crawley 11, Crawford 3, Williams 3, Williamson 11. Totals: 28 3-6 70. 3-point goals: Da. Brown 4, Sheppard 2, Williamson 2, De. Brown, Crawford, Williams.
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