Hopewell News

COLONIAL HEIGHTS — Closing in on the playoffs, the Blue Devils continued to build confidence by knocking off Colonial Heights 88-53 and securing the fourth seed behind Petersburg, Thomas Dale, and Meadowbrook.
Hopewell guard McKindley King got things started for Hopewell with nine points in the first quarter as the Blue Devils raced to a 17-11 lead. Pedro Berrios shook off some early cold shooting with nine points in the second quarter as Hopewell took control of the game with a 25-point surge, while holding the Colonials to a meager 10 points.
“We just wanted to set the tone, it started out on the defensive end, we just told them to press and play hard and get,” Berrios said. “I think when I started hitting shots they just collapsed on me and I started to feed the other players.”
The only thing that kept the game relatively close in the first quarter, when the Blue Devils took a 17-11 lead was the Colonials sharp shooter, Tyler Drewes. Drewes came out smoking in the first quarter, hitting a pair of 3-pointers, a lay-up, and three foul shots. He ended the night with four 3-pointers, and 27 points. But the Colonials could muster little else except for Lance Dyer’s 10 points in the second half.
“We are faced with a situation where we had to use kids earlier than we expected and they are realizing that the game is much more physical much quicker and the only thing that can resolve that is you have to play, and play, and play,” Colonial Heights coach John Thomas Jr. said. “We are about three games into that right now, and sometimes we look good and sometimes we don’t look so good and that is part of the growing process. We’re going to stick with them, work with them, and teach them until they catch on, we have a good group of kids and they want to learn and they want to get better.”
Meanwhile, Hopewell had no such problems. King and David Rose stepped up their defensive efforts against the Colonials young point guards, making steals and poking the ball to other Hopewell players. The steals resulted in a fast-break offense that allowed Berrios to connect for 12 third-quarter points, and King to tack on six more. Down the stretch in the fourth quarter, Rose found his way to the basket for 8 points before Hopewell Coach Reggie Simon let his subs finish the game up. On the night, Berrios had 23 points, King posted 21, and Rose finished with 13.
“I tried to tell the guys it would be a physical game. I know when we come over here to play Colonial Heights the game is always very physical. They play hard and they play aggressive for the full 32 minutes. They are going to get after you and try to see if they can turn you over. It helps prepare us for the tournament,” Simon said. “From us, I saw a lot of unselfish play by the guys, especially in the second half we were getting team-work shots, and I was very appreciative of that. There were a lot of assists tonight. It was a team effort, no one had a major amount of rebounds.”

Hopewell 89, Matoca 61

Following Hopewell’s 89-61 trouncing of Matoaca in the team’s regular season finale’ Saturday, coach Simon said he had his team where he wanted them to be going into Central District Tournament play Tuesday.
After a horrific losing skid midway through the season, the Blue Devils have worked their way into the tournament as the number four seed. For all their effort, they get play Dinwiddie Tuesday night in their opening round match.
“Everything looks good,” Simon said “We’re where I would like for us to be right now in the season, after we went through the losing streak.”
The Blue Devils had little trouble with confidence in their match against Matoaca. They came out fast and furious, setting the tone with 25 first-quarter points, while holding Matoaca to 14 points. For Hopewell, it was the usual suspects in the scoring columns with David Rose knocking down 11 points, and Pedro Berrios chipping in 7 in the first quarter. Rose finished the night with 24 points, Berrios came through with 21, and McKindley King chipped in 12.
“In the first half, we subbed and it was hard to get into a flow. If you have a sixth player show can do the job, then put him in. But when you have others who get in, it makes it harder to get things done on the floor,” David Rose said about the second quarter lapse.
With an 11-point lead to start the second quarter, it looked like the Blue Devils were a little out of sync. Passes weren’t as crisp, and Matoaca appeared to be forcing turnovers from Hopewell’s usually solid fast-break game. While Coach Simon attributed some of the apparent slowdown to Matoaca’s defense, he felt responsible for some of it due to subbing in players who don’t usually get to play that early in the game.
“It could have been (Matoaca’s defense), but you know I did some substitution trying to give some guys a chance to get in, establish a rotation, and let them know they can expect to play and need to have a certain energy level when they come in. I thought all the guys were contributing pretty well,” Simon said.
Despite seemingly sluggish play in the second, the Blue Devils extended their lead to 17 points at the half. With the starters on the court to start the third quarter, Hopewell reestablished their rhythm and scored 24 points to only 16 by Matoaca. With a 22-point lead near the end of the third quarter, Berrios hit a three-point buzzer beater to make the score 69-44.
Back on the floor for the start of the fourth quarter, Rose took the ball to the top of the key, created some space and drilled a three-pointer to stretch the lead to 28 points. From that point on, the Warriors had little chance to cut into the lead. The Blue Devils made sure to limit their attempts by making steals and hitting the boards. Leading the way for the Warriors was Brian White with 21 points, while Devonte Lee and Steton Cheeks had 16 and 13 points, respectively.
Box Scores

Hopewell............ 17 25 24 22 88
Colonial Heights 11 10 19 13 53
Hopewell: Reeves 8, Webb 6, Berrios 23, Dam. Rose 5, M. King 21, Dav. Rose 13, Taylor 4, A. King 4, Jones 2
Colonial Heights: Johnson 0, Onadipe 0, Moseley 0, Dyer 10, Rush 4, Daniels 0, Drewes 27, Pinkston 0, Holmes 0, Mears 0, Hicks 4, Steele 1, Kochuba 5, Whitaker 0, Bedford 1

Matoaca.. 14 14 16 17 61
Hopewell 25 20 24 20 89
Matoaca: Cousins 2, Cox 1, Davis 0, Johnson 4, Cheeks 13, Lee 16, Okephebolo 0, Evans 0, White 21, Birdsong 4
Hopewell: Reeves 3, Webb 8, Berrios 26, Dam. Rose 9, M. King 12, Dav. Rose 24, Taylor 2, A. King 3, Jones 2