• MBK drops Blue Devils
By Taylor Howsmon
Jan 19, 2012, 14:46
Hopewell's Ray-Shawn Jones and Andrew May trap an MBK ball handler -- PHOTO BY TAYLOR HOWSMON
HOPEWELL — The frustration of a losing streak continued Tuesday night for Hopewell as the Blue Devils dropped their second straight contest and seventh in 10 games. The inconsistency that has set back Hopewell all season continued as they were never able to jump ahead of visiting Meadowbrook, eventually losing the game 91-81.
“We are struggling to find our consistency ... I don’t have any problem with our effort, but we’ll have a breakdown here and there and those have killed us,” Hopewell coach Reggie Simon said. “Tonight we weren’t good enough defensively ... There are things we’ve done that we just aren’t doing right now ... Every time they (Meadowbrook) needed a critical basket, they got it.”
Meadowbrook was balanced and showed incredible efficiency. The Monarchs put five in double figures and scored over 20 in each quarter. The win, coupled with Thomas Dale’s win over Matoaca, creates a three-way tie for second in Central District. The win was Meadowbrook’s fifth in a row, showing them to be hitting their stride at the right time.
“I feel really good about this win because we needed a win over a good opponent and every year we’re battling with them (Hopewell) in the standings,” Meadowbrook coach K’saan Brown said. “After we got beat down at Petersburg by 30, I made some changes ... We’re playing good basketball right now.”
Hopewell’s offense, which has lacked production and consistency all season, was certainly not helped by the fact that Meadowbrook shot the ball well throughout the game. The Monarchs got out to a 19-7 lead early and carried the lead from there. Every time Hopewell would get close, it seemed Meadowbrook had an answer, as the visitors never trailed in the game. Although from a fan perspective it looked like Meadowbrook was the far more consistent team, their coach had a different opinion.
“I thought we made way to many mistakes in the first half, we turned the ball over and missed some lay ups and we can’t do that type of stuff,” Brown said. “When we took our time and played under control tonight, the game wasn’t as difficult for us as we made it look at times ... But we were anything but consistent.”
Hopewell tied the score at 49 early in the second half, and looked as if they were finally gaining the momentum to take their first lead. But that momentum was again felled by a Monarch run. Meadowbrook would end the third on a 14-4 run to take a 10-point lead into the final quarter.
Octavious Taylor was fantastic for Hopewell, scoring a career-high 28 points, but his effort was not enough as Meadowbrook was too good to be caught by the Blue Devils on this night. The visitors found success pumping the ball into big man Jaquante Saunders. The 6’5, 260 pound center scored seven of his 11 points in the final period and was a rebounding presence all night. After not getting chances in the first half, Saunders had a message for his coach and teammates at half.
“I told them to give me the ball inside, I saw in the first half that I could get space,” Saunders said. “As one of the seniors it’s my job to lead this team ... I feel like it’s my responsibility to ask for the ball when I can do something with it.”
Hopewell would only get as close as six, as the Monarchs made their free throws down the stretch.
Outside of Octavious Taylor, Hopewell’s feature scorers like Brian Brantley and Markus Adams struggled. The home team did get 18 from Kristoffer Brown and 13 from Tabyus Taylor. Meadowbrook was led by Brandon Cheeks’ 18 points.
