Hezaki Brown earned Playoff MVP and the Dwayne McClain Award as Eddie's Super Plaza, representing Doherty, won the Kingsway Summer League title
WORCESTER — Sixth-seeded Eddie’s Super Plaza, representing Doherty High, found themselves down eight with five minutes left in the first half to No. 3 Bella Marble & Granite, representing North High, after trailing, 14-1, three minutes into the game.
The magic that ignited their unlikely run to the championship looked to be fading until Hezaki Brown, who admits to being not much of a talker, said the communication between his teammates improved dramatically to spur a comeback.
“’Hezi’ has been terrific throughout the whole playoffs,” Eddie’s head coach Michael Adu said. “He’s doing a lot of great things being a great teammate and taking more of that leadership skill in the last year.”
The Doherty point guard, who earned Playoff MVP and the Dwayne McClain Award, took charge as his squad reeled off a 25-4 run spanning 12 minutes of game time en route to a 69-55 victory in the Kingsway Crompton Park Summer League championship on Tuesday, July 22.
“The switch was communicating on defense so everyone could be on the same page and that worked out really well,” said Ryan Dennis, who finished with 21 points and seven rebounds. “That’s a big thing we do at Doherty is defense and communicating so I think that’s what gets us in a good place in all of our games.”
Brown racked up 21 points, 5 assists, 3 rebounds and 3 steals while teammate Josiah Bates, who Adu called “silent thunder” contributed 17 points and three assists.
Eddie’s fell behind, 29-21, when Bella point guard Jyzeer Fiske crossed up a defender and hit a high-arching 3-pointer for his fourth trey of the half. Tylib Jenkins had been a terror on the inside with five rebounds and a pair of blocks up to that point, but an 11-0 run to end the half shifted all momentum in the other direction.
“We started off doing a lot of pick and rolls and it wasn’t working at first so we decided to put in ‘pass and cut’ to identify the mismatches throughout the game and that’s what really kept us going,” Adu said.
A couple of early buckets in the second half by Bella couldn’t stop the ongoing avalanche as they called a timeout 7:11 into the frame once the score reached 46-33. Jenkins, Robert Williams and Jason Abban did their best to keep themselves in the game but Eddie’s expanded the lead to 20 with 3:30 left and had all but secured one final upset to secure the title.
“Throughout the game, the guys stayed together,” Adu said. “They knew we had to dial it up on our possessions and take care of the ball. We started pushing the ball and a lot of good things happen when we rebound and push the floor.”
Adu, Brown and Dennis all had varying opinions on whether or not their team was truly an underdog story, but they all couldn’t hide their awareness of their accomplishment in their postseason run.
“This means we’re ready to go back on another hunt in the playoffs,” Adu said. “Last year we lost in the second round but this year we had a lot of returning players and we’re making a statement that we’ll be ready for next season.”
This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Brown named MVP as Eddie's Super Plaza (Doherty) wins Kingsway Summer League title
Category: General Sports
