Whitfield leads Wildcats past Knightdale
It's always important to make a good first impression. For a pair of the newest Wildcats, they made their presence known in a 72-67 season opening win against Knightdale.
What was a rematch of a 3rd Round game in the 4A State Playoffs back in March had a very similar start, from a very different Millbrook team. No, Chris Clemons wasn't knocking down three's, or finding Robert Brown in paint for a basket. This time new faces would emerge to help kick off a 15-0 run in the opening five minutes of the game. The 'Cats won the tip and Rashad George proceeded to take the ball straight to the net for the score only five seconds into the game. George, a 6'3 guard was one of three seniors to make their first career start on Thursday night and he finished with four points on the evening.
Another one of the seniors that is being counted on to play a big role on this year's team is John Burwell. He followed George's basket two possessions later with one of his own. In the opening four minutes of the game, Burwell had been involved in five of the Wildcats' first six scoring plays with four points and three assists. Faison Brock, Jordan Whitfield, and Trejon Jacob were all on the receiving end of Burwell's helpers in the opening moments of the game with Whitfield's basket being of the three point variety. The barrage of Millbrook baskets forced Knightdale to call timeout only 2:13 into the first quarter, and coming out of the timeout, the Wildcats sunk two more shots to force the Knights' Head Coach, Anthony Byrd to exaust a second timeout only 45 seconds later.
The pair of timeouts, and the now 15-0 lead allowed the Millbrook side to get a little creative. Admittedly, it wasn't in the game plan to play ten guys in the opening five minutes of the game according to Millbrook Coach Scott McInnes but that is what he had the luxury of doing in the early going. Senior's Seve Williams, and Monte' Harris, Junior's Patrick Dorsey, and Gee Kalejaiye, and Sophomore Adrian Scarborough all entered in a wholesale line change and played for the following three minutes. With the starting lineup being re-incorporated into the mix in the final minutes of the first quarter, Millbrook again padded onto the 27-11 lead that they would take into the end of the first stanza. Trejon Jacob took two passes from Faison Brock in transition and finished them with a slam, then the 6'5 forward grabbed a bounce pass in the lane from Kalejaiye and put it up while drawing contact for the three point play. Kalejaiye's assist would accompany a first quarter put back tip-in from high above the rim, on his final stat line, that also included a pair of rebounds, and what Coach McInnes said after the game, was "a lot of little things that help factor into winning games that you may not realize, Gee-- Oluwagbenga, had a really good game for us and he led us in energy all night long".
Burwell and Brock would add baskets to start the second quarter, but it was a span of eight minutes that was dominated by Knightdale. Slowly but surely, the Knights started to chip away at the deficit thanks in part to senior guard, and Murray State commit, Dondre' Griffin who pulled up to hit a mid-range jumper, then he attacked the basket for two more points. Another Knightdale senior, Jordan Shannon kept the visitor's momentum going with an explosive one handed jam that would be followed by a pair of putback layups from one more senior in 6'0 Josh Schenck who had a career high 20 points on the evening. Griffin would streak to the basket for the finger roll at the buzzer to send the teams into halftime with Millbrook up 37-30.
Coming out of the half, Griffin and the Knights weren't done. The 6'3 shooter pulled up from the elbow thirty seconds into the 3rd Quarter to make it a two possession game. Burwell would answer on the other end, but 6'6 Sophomore, Andrew Tuazama would exchange the favor with a layup seconds later. Trejon Jacob hauled in an offense rebound on the ensuing Millbrook possession and stepped back to hit the jumper. Knightdale pushed the ball up court quickly before Griffin settled for a three that would rattle out and into the hands of John Burwell who went coast to coast for the three point play to give the Wildcats a 41-36 lead with 6:03 left in the 3rd. It stayed a five point game as Marcus Manley and Trejon Jacob traded buckets on the next two plays, then it was John Burwell who stepped back to drain a long two. Schenck and Tuazama made things really interesting on the next two trips down court for the black and gold as Schenck put back another offensive rebound, and Tuazama cleaned up a Carnell Watkins miss with a big two-handed putback slam. For good measure, Dondre' Griffin then got a floater in the lane to fall following another big stop on defense. Before you knew it, with 4:12 left in the third, it was only a 45-44 lead for the 'Cats. The big Knightdale forward then swatted a John Burwell layup attempt across court on the next possession. The ball would fall into the hands of Jordan Whitfield who would make a nifty move through the lane for the basket to add a little bit of insurance to the Millbrook lead. The layup was only the 7th point of the game for Whitfield but unbeknownst to those in attendance, that was only the start of things to come.
Head Coach Scott McInnes said that his pregame message was on how to deal with adversity, in the message he said that "the guys need to know that things happen throughout the course of the game that they have no control over. They need to know to stick to the gameplan and play Millbrook Basketball, we can't go out there and beat ourselves". Well, that expected adversity struck late in the third quarter. Schenck again got to the offense glass and put it back up for the score then Griffin unleashed one from downtown with 2:54 left in the quarter to complete the comeback, and give Knightdale a 49-47 lead. Burwell quickly tied things up by racing up court, and to the basket for the score but the Knights' Aaron Taylor would take back the lead just like that with his only basket of the game to make it 51-49.
Along with the message of adversity, much of McInnes' post game thoughts were centered around the strong play of Faison Brock, who he called "our guy that just goes out and does everything for us". Brock who had 14 points on the night and registered his first double-double since his 15 point, 14 rebound performance at Broughton on January 30th, 2015 may have definied his evening on a deflection while down by two in the closing seconds of the third quarter. The 6'6 forward got his hands in on a pass and took it the length of the court and layed it in while being dragged down by Griffin. The basket tied the game at 51, but Brock was unable to complete his three point play as he had to exit the game due to an injury.
That's when another guy making his Wildcat debut comes into the story. Patrick Dorsey, a 6'5 junior, stepped in the place of Brock to give Millbrook a 52-51 lead after downing the free throw. Griffin again would strike gold from behind the arc as his third three of the game, and tenth point of the quarter would give Knightdale a 54-52 lead after three. Jordan Whitfield would take the lead back on a pair of free throws to start the fourth, then he dropped a three ball from the top of the key to keep it at a two point Wildcat advantage. He then added on to the lead with a pull up on right block to make it a two possession game with 3:41 left in regulation. Following a bucket from Andre' Willis of Knightdale, John Burwell would close out his scoring night with a trip to the cup for two, to make it 61-57 Millbrook. Burwell's 16 points on the evening was tied for most on the team, and it was a career high for the 6'0 guard.
Josh Schenck then cashed in on another play in the paint to cut it to 61-59 with 2:54 left before Patrick Dorsey would grab a pass at the volleyball line on the court on a broken Millbrook offense play and drill it home from two feet behind the three point line to make it a five point game. Tuazama closed out his 11 point performance with a jumper from the wing to cut into the Wildcat lead, then Griffin capped off his 22 point night with two more free throws to bring things back to a one point game at 64-63 with 1:23 left. Ten seconds later, Faison Brock took a pass from Whitfield in the high post and pitched it out to Dorsey who again found nothing but net for three, 67-63 Millbrook. Knightdale called their final timeout of the night following the triple from Dorsey and they responded with one more basket to keep the constant back and forth battle going.
In the span of three minutes, Patrick Dorsey went from a guy with no shots taken in the game, to a hero, to making a huge blunder, and then back to a hero. With 37.8 seconds left, Dorsey inbounded a ball following a Wildcat timeout. With the score being 67-65 Millbrook, Dondre' Griffin jumped the play and picked off the pass to take it to the basket before being met by guess who? Patrick Dorsey at the right elbow who would take a shoulder to the chest, and draw the charge to give Millbrook the ball right back with 33.4 left in the game. The charge was the Wildcats' first of the season and it couldn't have come at a better time, as it forced the Knights to foul Trejon Jacob, Faison Brock, and Jordan Whitfield who would hit five of a combined six free throws to ice the 72-67 win.
With the win, the Wildcats open the season 1-0 and it's the six straight year that Millbrook has opened the year in the win column. Jordan Whitfield and John Burwell led the team in scoring with 16 points, and Faison Brock came in right on their heels with 14. Trejon Jacob had 11 points, Patrick Dorsey registered 7, Rashad George had 4, and Gee Kalejaiye had 2. Next up for Millbrook is a matchup against Apex High School on Monday at 7PM. The Cougars are currently 0-1 on the season as they fell to Broughton, 69-51 earlier in the week, before their matchup at the Wildcat Gymnasium, they will take on Leesville on Friday night. The Millbrook JV team will tip-off on Monday at 5:30PM following by Varsity at 7:00PM, Admission is $5. For more information, follow us on Twitter at @MillbrookMBB.
