Mike Vukovcan The Hopewell Boys basketball program opened up their summer league tonight as they took on West Allegheny at Cornell High School.
The new look Vikings jumped out to an early 11-0 lead off the hot shooting of sophomore Brody Rock. The Vikings full court defense was stifling early, forcing many turnovers and also contest many passes and shot from WA’s shooters.
The game was played nearly even after that initial surge as the Vikings took a 10-point lead into the 4th quarter.
Fatigue and some careless ball handling led to West Allegheny tying the game with 9 seconds left.
Hopewell called a timeout and assistant coach Dwight Hines drew up a fantastic out of bounds play that got sophomore James Armstrong a layup with 5 seconds left.
After that, Hopewell’s stingy defense, which will be their calling card this season and, in the future, held West Allegheny without a shot attempt as the Vikings held on to a 46-44 win against a quality 5A opponent.
Vikings Takeaways:
-Brody Rock shot the ball extremely well. Tre Cameron had flashes of dynamic playmaking on the offensive end. Sophomore Jack Biega hit a big-three pointer and was a menace on the defensive end.
-James Armstrong showed why he’ll be a consistent double-double player throughout the rest of his career. Senior Bryce Ray started in the absence of Nick Adams and had a great assist and a big drive to the basket in the 4th quarter. Sophomore Avery Bokor contributed on the offensive end and played many quality minutes. Sophomore Aaden Gonzalez played sparingly due to a nagging foot injury from soccer but played tremendous defense and played extremely tough.
-One thing that was obvious from the jump was the level of intensity this program will play with and it’s a level that this team hasn’t played with in decades. Another thing that was incredibly encouraging was during every dead ball, every time out, every break in action, there was coaching pockets taking place all around the bench area. Every single player was being addressed, coached up, and encouraged or corrected. No kid was not receiving feedback throughout the game. That’s called coaching.
WINNING IS FUN!!!
Hopewell will be back on the court this Thursday as they’ll take on Montour. This game will tipoff at 8 PM from Sto-Rox Middle School.
