Mt. Hermon nearly captured a victory after having a big deficit, but came up short to Kentwood, 58-52, at home Tuesday.
The Yellow Jackets, whose young team saw three juniors, two sophomores and two freshmen play on Tuesday, trailed by 15 at halftime and as many as 17 in the third quarter.
Mt. Hermon’s 17-point deficit was 44-27 with 2:14 left in the third quarter.
The Yellow Jackets got closer when Travell Brumfield made a 3-pointer with 28 seconds left in the third quarter to make it a 44-30 game through three.
Mt. Hermon then made it seven a row with the opening four points of the fourth quarter.
Tevin Williams grabbed an offensive rebound and hit the putback on the quarter’s first possession. Williams made a shot and got fouled. He missed the free throw, but had pulled the Yellow Jackets within 10 with 7:07 left.
Kentwood’s Jaheim Diamond made a layup for a 46-34 lead.
But Mt. Hermon kept coming back.
“They’re going to do that. That’s one thing I don’t have to worry about is they’re going to keep fighting. That’s one thing I’m fortunate to not have to worry about that this year is they are playing hard the whole game,” Mt. Hermon coach Josh Priola said. “In the first half when they got up on us early, we had actually had some uncharacteristic plays where we weren’t getting back and it was killing us. But I knew we would fight back.”
Williams made a steal and passed to Tristan Brumfield for the layup. LaQuarry Alexander made a 3-pointer to make it a seven-point contest, which was the closest the game had been since it was 23-16 at the 6:22 mark of the second quarter.
Mt. Hermon continued to come back. The Yellow Jackets pulled within five when Williams tallied a steal and was good on the layup with 4:47 on the clock.
Kentwood’s Jerry Walls pushed the lead back to seven on a layup 16 seconds later.
The Yellow Jackets then ran off seven straight points and tied the game. Tristan Brumfield hit a 3-pointer. He then made a layup after Williams made a steal. The lead was down to 48-46 with 3:54 left. Williams tied the game at 48-48 nearly a minute later.
But Kentwood’s Bryce Cooper hit a field goal and Diamond made a layup to put the lead at 52-48. Williams hit a free throw with 1:41 and 1:19 left, trimming Kentwood’s lead to 52-50, but could get no closer. Kentwood scored six in a row to go up eight in the 58-52 final.
Williams led Mt. Hermon with 22 points.
Michquel Spears had nine points while Tristan Brumfield posted seven points, Jeremy Bickham recorded six and Travell Brumfield and Keondre Bunch had four each for the Yellow Jackets. Travell Brumfield, Spears and Tristan Brumfield all made a 3-pointer.
Terrell Hookfin was Kentwood’s leading scorer with 13 points.
Diamond and Edward Magee recorded nine points while Ja’Kevis Callihan tallied eight, Walls posted seven, Cooper recorded six points, Keandre Fultz tallied four and Jerryon Nichols and LaBrandon Cooper added two each. Hookfin and Walls made a 3-pointer each.