A big Knights double: Ardrey Kell snatches boys, girls SoMECK 7 tournament titles
It was a night for the Knights at Providence High School Friday.
Ardrey Kell’s boys and girls won SoMECK 7 4A tournament titles and they did it in similar fashion.
Both teams won by one point.
▪ In the girls’ tournament championship, Ardrey Kell, the No. 2 seed, fought off a stubborn challenge from No. 3 Berry High, winning 4-43 victory. Lucy Vanderbeck and Kennedy Cash each had a 3-pointer thirty-five seconds apart late in the fourth quarter for the championship-deciding Knights’ points.
Evan Miller led the Knights (22-5) with 14 points while Berry (12-13) was paced by Jordan McLaughlin and Kendall Terry respectively with 17 and 14 points.
▪ In the boys final and for the second year in a row, the Knights upset Olympic, winning 54-53 in the 2019 conference final. Ardrey Kell led for most of the game except for two brief occasions in the second half. Leading by one point with 12 seconds left in the game, the Trojans had one last chance for a winning bucket, but their final attempt at the buzzer wouldn’t go.
“We played a great team tonight and you have to give them credit,” said Ardrey Kell coach Mike Craft. “Two weeks ago they handled us at home pretty well (20-pt Trojans’ win). We knew coming in that we had to do some things differently. One was rebound and the second was take care of the ball. And for the most part I thought we did that.”
Ardrey Kell junior guard Luke Stankavage led the Knights with 19 points, including 12 in the second half and eight in the final quarter His two free throws late in the fourth quarter proved to be the winning Ardrey Kell points. Christian Pickens also finished in double figures for the Knights with 14, including eight in the decisive fourth quarter.
Olympic was led by junior Joshua Banks who had a game-high 26 points. Banks, who scored his 1,000th career point, was the only Trojans’ player to hit double figures. Tauris Ragin Jr. had nine points for Olympic while Charles Bryson III finished with eight points.
Ardrey Kell started out on fire by opening the game with a 7-0 run and led 13-4 after the first quarter. Olympic didn’t score its first points until two minutes remaining in the first quarter. The Knights started the second quarter turning the ball over, and the Trojans capitalized to cut the Knights’ lead at the half to three points.
THREE WHO MATTERED:
Christian Pickens, Ardrey Kell: Had a big 3-pointer early in the third quarter and tied Luke Stankavage with points in the decisive fourth quarter, each with eight.
Joshua Banks, Olympic: Led the Trojans and all scorers with 26 points, including 15 in the second half.
Davidson Hubbard, Ardrey Kell: -6-4 junior forward led the Knights in rebounding with six, and was given the tough task of guarding Olympic big man Taurus Ragin Jr. Hubbard also finished with seven points before fouling out in the fourth quarter.
WORTH MENTIONING:
In last season’s SoMECK conference tournament final, The Knights beat Olympic 66-64 in overtime on David Kasanganay’s (now playing at the Naval Academy) 3-pointer at the buzzer.
Ardrey Kell won the defensive rebounding battle (23-18) and total rebounding stat (33-31), while the Trojans won the second-chance points stat (15-4) and points off of turnovers mark (14-10).
THEY SAID IT: “It’s great. We lost to them both years in the regular season so that’s tough. On a big stage our guys like to come play. We’re a great team, we play together and play hard.” Knights’ junior guard Luke Stankavage on beating the Trojans in the tournament final for a second year in a row.
RECORDS: Ardrey Kell (21-5)
Olympic (20-5)
WHAT’S NEXT: NCHSAA playoffs begin next week for both teams.
This story was originally published February 23, 2019 at 12:25 AM.
