Jonah Hill says he’s not much of a scorer and still quite isn’t sure what to do when on the court. But it didn’t matter much on the second day of the 2013 Tournament of Champions Friday night.
In just his second game of the season, Hill came off the bench and tallied a double-double with 14 points and a game-high 11 rebounds as Hillcrest beat Prestonwood Christian 76-49.
“I don’t go in there expecting to score 10 or even 6 points, but I do expect to get 15 rebounds,” Hill said. “That’s my job on the team and I like to do that. I enjoy that.”
Hill, who’s committed to play football at Arkansas State in the fall, didn’t come out for basketball at the start of the season. Hillcrest coach John Schaefer said he didn’t push Hill into joining the team, instead wanting the senior to be sure he wanted to play.
The two talked again over Christmas break and following a unanimous team vote, Hill was added to the squad in early January.
Hill’s size and strength made a quick impact. He had seven points and six rebounds off the bench in the first half.
Hillcrest trailed 21-17 after the first quarter, but outscored the Lions 25-5 in the second quarter to lead by 16 points at halftime.
Senior Austin Petry’s 3-pointer capped 12 straight Hillcrest points and gave the hometown team a 35-23 lead.
“I knew we’d come out with better effort. We had to,” Schaefer said. “I felt like we felt sorry for ourselves a little bit in the loss Thursday night. It’s hard to get motivated a day after a loss and I felt like in the first quarter we stood around a lot, but then things got moving and we picked up the offense.”
Petry had a game-high 20 points. Sophomore reserve Brady Petry added 12 points.
Marquan Botley led Prestonwood Christian with 11 points, but went scoreless in the second half.
Hill went 6-for-8 from the field and grabbed five offensive rebounds.
“He made more layups than I figured he would,” Schaefer laughed. “He struggles sometimes with layups. And he still missed a couple, but his physicality and going to get the ball, helped so much.”
Added Hill: “Considering I don’t know one play and I’m just running around asking people what to do, it works because we have a team that loves to talk and communicate on the floor.”
The Hornets will play in the fifth place game at 5 p.m. Saturday. Prestonwood Christian, playing without its top two players in senior Julius Randle and sophomore Mickey Mitchell, goes for seventh place at 3:30.
Hillcrest 76, Prestonwood Christian 49
Hillcrest 17 25 17 17 ---76
Prestonwood Christian 21 5 13 10 --- 49
Hillcrest – Austin Petry 20, Jonah Hill 14, Brady Petry 12, David McIntosh 9, Juwan Johnson 8, Rylan Pryor 5, Thomas Whitaker 4, Roy Hardy 4
Hillcrest 76, Prestonwood Christian 49
Hillcrest 17 25 17 17 ---76
Prestonwood Christian 21 5 13 10 --- 49
Hillcrest – Austin Petry 20, Jonah Hill 14, Brady Petry 12, David McIntosh 9, Juwan Johnson 8, Rylan Pryor 5, Thomas Whitaker 4, Roy Hardy 4
Prestonwood Christian – Marquan Botley 11, Evan Peters 9, Shane Missimo 8, Daniel Tate 8, Chas Taylor 6, D.J. McGee 4, Buddy Kennedy 3
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Derek Willis and the Bullitt East Chargers got the best of future SEC rival Bobby Portis and the Little Rock Hall Warriors.
In a matchup that pitted the Kentucky commit (Willis) against the Arkansas-bound Portis, both big men came away with similar stat lines. But it was Willis’ team who finished with the victory, as the Chargers held on in the fourth quarter for a 68-58 victory in the consolation round of the 2013 Tournament of Champions Friday night.
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Derek Willis and the Bullitt East Chargers got the best of future SEC rival Bobby Portis and the Little Rock Hall Warriors.
In a matchup that pitted the Kentucky commit (Willis) against the Arkansas-bound Portis, both big men came away with similar stat lines. But it was Willis’ team who finished with the victory, as the Chargers held on in the fourth quarter for a 68-58 victory in the consolation round of the 2013 Tournament of Champions Friday night.
Willis finished with 19 points and nine rebounds. Portis tallied 18 points, 15 coming in the second half, and eight rebounds in the loss.
“Bobby Portis is a good player,” Willis said. “It was a good matchup. I didn’t think he could as well as he could. I enjoyed playing against him.”
Bullitt East (Kentucky) led 45-41 entering the fourth quarter. Hall got within 50-49, but the Chargers got four straight points from Willis and then a basket from Elliott Young, who had a game-high 20 points, to make it 56-49.
Leading 56-54, Bullitt East scored eight of the game’s next 10 points to put the contest out of reach for Hall with less than a minute to go.
Willis displayed his ball handling skills in the second half by playing a bit of point forward. He finished with six assists, six blocks and five turnovers.
“I tried to pull (Portis) away from the basket a bit in the second half and open up our offense,” Willis said. “With him out of the paint, we tried to use it to our advantage.”
Portis was 8-for-14 from the field, including 1-for-4 from 3-point range. He made one of four free throw attempts. Warriors guard Javon Perry had 12 points and seven assists.
Hall will play Prestonwood Christian for 7th place at 3:30 p.m. Saturday. Bullitt East plays Hillcrst at 5 p.m. in the 5th place game.
Bullitt East 68, Little Rock Hall 58
Hall 14 17 10 17 --- 58
B.E. 14 17 14 23 --- 68
Hall – Bobby Portis 18, Javon Perry 12, Roy Owens 9, Anthony Black 7, Cardanus 5, Dayton Artis 3, Eric Daily 2, Evan James 2
Bullitt East – Elliott Young 20, Derek Willis 19, Rusty Troutman 14, Trey Rakes 9, Hunter Noffsinger 4, Chris Embry 2
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