Host Majors Win 34th Annual Mount Vernon Holiday Tournament

By Angela Watts
Assistant G.M., Washington DC Metro Area

** Click the links above for more than 150 photos and video highlights from Mount Vernon’s win over Wise in the championship game and Yorktown’s victory over Fairfax in the consolation final!!

The dancing started with just over two minutes remaining in the 34th annual Mount Vernon Holiday Tournament championship game.

Mount Vernon junior guard Robert Smith drove the middle of the lane and dished the ball to senior forward Kyle Ricks, who was standing just outside of the paint.

Ricks took one step toward the basket, dribbled and patiently waited for the defenders to come.

They did.

Wise seniors Edward Thomas and Delonta Boyd closed on either side of Ricks, who then muscled up a shot that hit the front end of the rim, bounced and drew the foul to give the Majors a four-point lead with 2 minutes, 8 seconds remaining over the previously unbeaten Pumas.

As the players on the court celebrated with high-fives and fist pumps and the players on the bench jumped out of their seats, Mount Vernon Coach Alfonso Smith broke into a quick little jig on the sideline before regaining his composure.

But that didn’t last long.

When the final horn sounded to seal the Majors’ 76-71 championship victory over the seventh-ranked Pumas, the home fans joined the players on the court to the sounds of “Celebration” by the Kool & The Gang.

And after the trophies were handed out, that’s when the dancing began in earnest as senior guard Lamont Murray led Coach Smith in a post-game promise.

“Hey, ya know, once upon a time I had a few moves,” Smith said, laughing. “I told them I was a quick learner, so if they made it happen and they rallied together and did what they needed to do as a team that I’d give them a lil something at the end.

“I thought that their short-term memory might work to my advantage, but they remembered very quickly.”

The Majors, though, certainly earned their reward. Down 53-47 at the end of the third quarter, Mount Vernon turned up its defensive pressure and harassed Wise into several costly turnovers. The Majors also got hot shooting, outscoring the Pumas, 29-18, in the final eight minutes of play.

“Man this feels great,” said senior forward — and tournament MVP — Robert Coleman.
“Nobody thought we had a chance. Everybody was like, ‘Who’s Mount
Vernon? Who’s Mount Vernon?’ And Wise was ranked No. 7 in the
[Washington] Post.

“I think everybody knows who Mount Vernon is now.”

Junior forward Skylar Jones led the way for Mount Vernon, scoring 14 of his game-high 26 points in the final period, including a trio of three-pointers. The Majors also got two big buckets late from sophomore Jesse Konadu, who finished with 11 points, and had four other players — Coleman, Ricks, Smith and senior guard Brian Green — scored eight points or more.

“They’re such an excellent team,” Smith said. “They could beat us in so many different ways. … But we felt that if we could turn up the defensive pressure and get those legs a little tired and stay positive and stay together, that good things should be able to happen with that.”

And Smith hopes Monday’s victory is just the start of good things to comes.

“We’re going to keep them humble if we have to legally beat it into them,” Smith teased. “We’ll keep them humble. The thing is, they read the paper and all of the different things and the rankings that are out there, and they’re high on emotion right now. So of course it feels good to beat a ranked opponent. … But like we said, the only ranking that we’re really concerned about is when the season ends, hopefully in March.”

Email: awatts@digitalsports.com

ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM

Tournament MVP
Robert Coleman, Mount Vernon

First Team
DeLonta Boyd, Wise
Dion Felix, Eastlake
David Golladay, Wise
Skylar Jones, Mount Vernon
Simon Kilday, Yorktown
Kabel Moody, Fairfax
Anthony Myers, McKinley Tech
Derek Pruitt, Mount Vernon
T.J. Wilson, Hayfield
Phil Wood, Wise

FINAL DAY BOX SCORES

Championship Game

No. 7 Wise 23 20 10 18 — 71
Mount Vernon 19 19 9 29 — 76

Wise — Boyd 19, Wood 14, Makell 12, Golladay 10, Thomas 6, Woodruff 6; Barfield 2, Till 2; Mount Vernon — Jones 26, Konadu 11, Coleman 9, Green 9, Ricks 8, Smith 8, Pruitt 5.

Consolation Final

Fairfax 7 17 10 16 — 50
Yorktown 13 11 10 19 — 53

Fairfax — Beam 14, Bretana 14, Hazel 8, Moody 8, Kuchel 6; Yorktown — Veith 16, Kilday 13, Toulouse 13, Carey 6, Earley 5.

Seventh-Place Game

Marshall 11 14 10 12 — 47
Hayfield 15 14 19 15 — 63

Marshall — Simonton 12, Ahmed 10, McClain 8, Whittington 8, Fisher 6, Verbusaitis 3; Hayfield — Wilson 23, Canady 13, Rigans 9, Gibson 7, Blochberger 4, Renner 3, Williams 3, King 1.