ARLINGTON-Despite an 18-8 record, Terry Parker was the odd man out of the district last season and missed the playoffs; while rivals Bishop Kenny and Ribault moved on.
The Braves are making sure that doesn’t happen this season by going undefeated in District 3-6A play and securing the No. 1 seed in the upcoming 3-6A tournament which they will host Feb 6-10 on campus.
Parker (18-2, 5-0) clinched the top seed with a 59-47 win over Bishop Kenny (18-6, 3-2) last night at home.
Kenny took an early 2-1 lead but that was the only lead of the game for the Crusaders who had trouble with the Braves zone defense through out the game.
While Parker played mostly zone defense the whole game, Kenny played man to man for part of the game before switching to press the last quarter.
The Braves defense forced numerous turnovers, while Kenny was able to work the ball around and find the open man but went cold shooting from behind the arc.
Before anyone knew it that 2-1 lead quickly became a 8-2 deficit minutes later thanks to the unselfish play Malcolm Richardson, Erik Hill, Rameel Serrano and Mahlon Hutchinson.
Ahead 8-4 in the closing seconds of the first quarter, Hutchinson made an unbelievable play grabbing an offensive rebound tight roping the base line and driving around his defender and finishing the play with a reverse layup. The play brought the crowd on its feet and swung the momentum of the game.
Hutchinson sank the ensuing free throw for a 11-4 lead, which was followed by a jumper from Serrano before the buzzer for a 13-6 lead after one quarter.
Adam Bowenschulte nailed a three cutting the lead to 13-10 to start the second quarter but the Braves went on the attack quickly.
Hill tipped a ball in, Hutchinson blocked a shot, Richardson nailed a jumper an followed with a steal and free throws to put the Braves up 19-12. Louis Williams grabbed a rebound and threw a perfect long pass to a wide open Hutchinson who easily laid the ball up for a 21-12 lead.
Richardson drained a three and a jumper on back-to-back offensive series to give the Braves their biggest lead of the game at 26-15; however the Crusaders wouldn’t go away as Bowen nailed a three and stole the ball and laid it up and made the ensuing free throw to cut it to 26-20 going into the half.
A three coming out of the half by Kenny cut the lead to 26-23 but a 8-2 answer thanks to layups from Richardson, Glenn Brinson and Hill and a jumper from Serrano push the lead to 32-25 midway through the third quarter.
Hill, who finished with 11 rebounds, grabbed back-to-back offensive rebounds and made 1 of 2 free throws to make it a ten point lead at 35-25 with three minutes left in the third.
Richardson sank a NBA three pointer and Hutchinson followed with a lay up to extend the Braves biggest lead of the game to 13 points ahead 40-27 with seconds left in the third.
Kenny switched to a pressing defense and hoped to catch Parker off guard with turnovers but the Braves were able to break the press easily leading to quick transition layups to end the third.
Serrano looked up and threw a long pass to Williams for an easy layup and 15 point lead just before the buzzer sounded to end the third quarter.
Another Hill rebound led to a Serrano jumper to start the fourth as the lead grew to 17, but Kenny wouldn’t go away.
Two more three pointers from Bowenschulte started a rally for the Crusaders who began to chip the lead down to as close as 54-46 with 56.2 seconds left; however Richardson made four three throws down the stretch to close it out.
“Richardson has played like that all year long, he’s not really doing anything different that he hasn’t been doing all year for us,” Parker coach Elijah Wells said. “He’s a really good shooter and handles the ball really well and we rely on him a lot.”
Wells was also quick to praise the play of Erik Hill, who dominated the boards and controlled the post.
“Erik has been our leading rebounder for the last three years,” Wells who is in his twenty first year at Parker said. “He’s been on varsity since tenth grade and we call him Monster because he is so relentless.”
With 8 guys returning from last year’s disappointing season, Wells wasn’t shocked by the Braves run this season so far.
“We had a good group of guys coming back, 8 seniors coming back and a sophomore point guard so I knew we would be pretty good again,” Wells said.
Clinching the top seed is a start in the right direction to securing the district title and elusive playoff berth something it couldn’t’ manage to do last season.
“This district is very competitive with three really good teams in Parker, Ribault and Bishop Kenny, but I will tell you this we will not take No. 4 seed (Yulee) lightly either,” Wells said.
Richardson 17, Hutchinson 11, Hill 7 led the Braves in scoring while Clarence Long 6, G’Shaun Aldridge 5, Glen Brinson 4 and Louis Williams contributed as well.
Adam Bowenschulte 17 points and Lou Larmoyeux 10 points led the Crusaders in scoring.
A Kenny would have created a three-way tie between Parker, Keeny and Ribault, to which Coach Ellis said likely would have come down to a coin flip between them to decide the top three seeds.
Fortunately for Ellis, one isn’t needed and his Braves are the top seed, ahead of Ribault (4-1), Bishop Kenny (3-2).
District 3-6A
1. Parker (5-0)
2. Ribault (4-1)
3. Bishop Kenny (3-2)
4. Yulee (2-3)
5. Paxon (1-4)
6. Stanton (0-5)
