City of Basketball Love

Michael Bullock (@thebullp_n)
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HARRISBURG — As one of George Washington’s assistant coaches emerged from his team’s locker room late Monday afternoon, a grin formed, a chuckle escaped and a wisecrack followed when asked if the Eagles always shoot as well as they did.

“Maybe in practice,” the assistant said.

And then when the obvious follow-up included some numbers — GW finished 10-for-18 from beyond the 3-point arc — a well-earned compliment came as well.

“That’s a pretty good day,” he added.

Indeed it was as Kyle Sample’s Eagles parlayed their perimeter work into a lead that was just big enough to help GW fend off a fast-closing Cedar Cliff side 64-60 in Game 2 of the Harrisburg Scholastic Play-by-Play Classic at Kimber Gymnasium.

Denelle Holly and Quadere Allen each racked up 17 points for GW (6-9), which sported an 11-point lead (44-33) with 2:40 to play in the third quarter after Holly buried the second of his two treys from deep in the left corner.

“[Holly] don’t even shoot that much, but when he does that’s the result,” Allen said. “Me and Saleem [Brown], we look for the three.

“If it’s falling early, then they get us going.”

Brown tacked on 16 points for the Eagles, who watched their double-digit advantage shrink to a pair (50-48) early in the fourth quarter on yet another Derek Ford drive and score.

Ford netted 29 points for Jim Rowe’s Colts (9-6).

Moments later, the last of Brown’s four 3-pointers restored some order as GW stretched its tenuous lead to five. The Colts again pulled within two (62-60) in the final minute on a pair of Mark Shultz freebies, but the Eagles had just enough.

Thanks to those 10 deep rips that singed the Kimber Gymnasium nets.

Interestingly, GW shot 56 percent from the arc — but only knocked down 51 percent (21-of-41) of its collective field-goal attempts.

“The focus the last two days has been moving the ball, stepping into our shots and not being afraid,” Sample said. “Our motto normally is, ‘If teams give it to us, take what they give us.’ Let’s make them work a little bit. This team was so good defensively in their zone that we had to take the open ones.”

“If we make our first, me and Saleem, we shoot threes, we shoot about three or four a game sometimes,” Allen said. “If it’s clicking and the first one go down, we keep looking for it. The point guards, Denelle and Verland, they do a good job of getting into the paint and swinging it to us. Just getting us open looks.”

• As mentioned previously, Brown finished with four treys. Although the GW sophomore missed his only two free throws late, he canned his final five looks from the field and wound up 6-for-9 from the floor.

“I like the gym,” Brown admitted, offering props to Harrisburg High’s playpen.

“I like the gym.”

• Allen bagged two long-distance efforts, with both arriving in the first half when he collected 11 of his 17 points. The 6-3 senior was 6-for-11 from the field.

• Holly’s area code jumpers came in the third quarter, both from that same spot in the deep left corner, as he pocketed 13 second-half points. Holly was 4-for-6 from the floor, but also cashed in at the line, going 7-for-8.

• Verland Wayns Jr. and Jamere Williams knocked down 3-point attempts for their only points of the afternoon. Wayns also dropped three dimes.

So, it was a pretty good day against a Cedar Cliff club that began the game in a man-to-man defensive look and switched to a 3-2 zone.

“We’ve been working on it, but we’re really not a 3-point shooting team,” Holly admitted. “But our coach told us they were going to pack into a zone and we knew we had to shoot the open shot … and it was falling.”

Didn’t matter what the hard-working Colts tried defensively, as GW had a response.

Usually from deep after someone drove into the paint and kicked.

“Good job by Verland,” Holly added.

Wrap everything up and the bus ride home to Philadelphia was going to be much more palatable — especially since Sample’s Eagles cranked out a really productive performance and bounced off after collaring a satisfying result.

Sample’s Eagles will need to sleep extremely fast, however, since Philly Public League hammer and reigning PIAA Class A champion Constitution awaits Tuesday.

“We’ve been on a losing streak, so we came in here aggressive and looking for a win. That’s what we mainly wanted,” Allen continued. “So we move forward with a W, forget about it and go in tomorrow looking for another win.”

“For us to come out and shoot like that, hopefully we can piggyback off of that,” Sample added. “For us to come out and win a game on the road, hopefully we can take that forward. We only have three home games the rest of the year.”