Bison run away from D-II Washington Adventist in second half
After a season in which he often took the floor with no more than six scholarship players, Howard coach Kevin Nickelberry was thrilled to utter the following words after Monday’s 83-63 victory over Washington Adventist.
“Our depth just took over in the second half,” Nickelberry said.
Recommended Stories
With his team down by 12 points late in the first half, it was nice for Nickelberry to look down his bench and have options. The Bison rotated 10 players including a pair of reserves who scored in double figures. Over the final 16 minutes, 14 seconds, Howard out-scored Washington Adventist 41-15.
Instead it was the Division II Shock dragging at the end. Adventist (0-1) had only six players who logged double-digit minutes.
“We were the other team last year,” Nickelberry said. “That’s what happened to us.”
Nickelberry is happy to welcome back the top scorer from the 2009-10 team, Calvin Thompson, who was out last year with a torn ACL. The 6-foot-3 guard scored 19 of his game-high 23 points in the second half and finished with eight rebounds and five assists.
Howard got strong work up front from 6-10 sophomore Alphonso Leary (13 points, six rebounds), who hit all five of his shots from the floor, 6-7 junior Mike Phillips (11 points, nine rebounds), and 6-6 junior Dadrian Collins (11 points, six rebounds).
It took a while for Howard to assert its power however. Adventist arrived with an enthusiastic cheering section among the crowd of 837, anxious to see the Shock live up to its nickname and pull off its first-ever victory over a Division I school.
With 5-7 senior Jamie Newton (18 points, four assists) creating havoc on the perimeter and 6-8 senior Marcus Coleman (18 points, 16 rebounds) rampaging inside and out, Adventist bolted to a 36-24 lead.
“A lot of teams overlook us,” said Newton. “They don’t think we have the talent. But our program has changed. We have a lot of talent.”
But the Shock didn’t have enough of it available in the second half as 6-5 freshman Josh Adeyeye (sprained ankle) was unavailable.
“With him, to be honest with you, it’s a different story,” Adventist coach Patrick Crarey said. “We’re only functioning right now with six guys.”
But with five incoming freshmen in the rotation Nickelberry has no such problem. On Monday night the five combined for 81 minutes, led by 5-11 Simuel Frazier (14 points, five assists, five rebounds). The other freshmen who contributed are all locals – 6-8 Oliver Ellison (Gonzaga), 6-6 Brandon Bailey (Largo), 6-5 Prince Okoroh (Eleanor Roosevelt), and 6-3 Brandon Ford (Gwynn Park) – as second-year coach Nickelberry has stressed plucking players from the talent-rich Washington area.
“That situation last year, we would have been playing walk-ons,” Nickelberry said. “Those freshmen came in and gave us those minutes. It wasn’t always pretty. But they were quality minutes.”
