HAMPTON — No. 2 Hampton loosened No. 4 Woodside’s two-year grip on the Peninsula District boys basketball championship with a 55-43 victory in their showdown Friday night in the Crabbers’ sold-out gymnasium.
The Crabbers (14-1, 9-1) can tighten their own grip on a first district title since 2017 by beating Denbigh (11-2, 8-1) on Thursday in a first-place showdown in the Hampton gym. Crabbers coach Eric Brown indicated a PD title (albeit unofficial these days) would be nice, but that more will be at stake against the Patriots.
“We’re in 4 (Class 4 Region A) and they are in 4,” he said. “We want to host regionals, and a win would go a long way toward doing that, so that game is even more important.”
The way the Crabbers and Wolverines went after each other on Friday — in a game often chippy, but never out of control — you’d have thought the stakes could not be higher. No less could be expected after their earlier meeting at Woodside, won 56-54 by the Crabbers in overtime.
Hampton led by 13 early before the Wolverines rallied to within 34-32 in the final seconds of the third quarter. But, after Kamrin Jenrette banked in a 10-footer to beat the third-quarter buzzer, the Crabbers rolled.
The star was Abraham Taft, who scored 18 points in the earlier meeting, but had only four going into the final eight minutes. A 6-foot-4 senior, Taft scored the first nine points in the Crabbers’ decisive 12-2 run to start the fourth quarter. Two of his baskets came on passes from the top of the key by 6-8 senior Gavin Kay.
“It really turned into who could make the cleaner pass,” Brown said. “We thought Gavin could make the easier pass because he’s so tall, and Abe could get position more easily.
“We’re taller, and we wanted to take advantage of that.”
The strong finish bookended the Crabbers’ quick start on both ends. They made their first eight shots and used a smothering man defense to force the Wolverines into 3-of-9 shooting to lead 19-6 after a quarter. But, inevitably, Woodside, unbeaten in the district the previous two seasons, rallied little by little over the next two quarters.
“He does a good job of getting his guys back in tune, and they locked in and slowed us down,” Brown said of Woodside coach Stefan Welsh. “I knew from the jump we weren’t going to run away with it.”
The Wolverines’ best stretch was a seven-point run late in the third quarter as Jayden Detrick made a 3 and two free throws in addition to assisting Donnell Jarrett (11 points) on a basket. Jenrette’s bank shot slowed the Wolverines’ momentum before Taft killed it altogether with his big start in the fourth quarter.
Kay punctuated the Crabbers’ surge with a dunk off of an assist by Jawaun Tucker.
“We didn’t play physical the first game (against Woodside),” said Brown, who got 15 points from Joshua Rice. “We played physical this game and really made it a point to go inside.
“I thought that was the difference.”