The DeMatha Stags were leading by almost double digits in the 4th quarter, but Sierra Canyon was mounting a comeback and chipping away at the lead.
The electrified crowd was enthusiastically cheering on the hometown DeMatha Stags. It felt like an NBA playoff atmosphere.
Senior point guard Jaden Winston led a very balanced DeMatha attack with 10 points, but his real impact was felt on the defensive end where he continuously harassed the Sierra Canyon backcourt the entire night, making them visibly uncomfortable which led to them at times struggling to get into their offensive sets and contributed to Bronny James being held to 11 points on just two FG’s
Ashton Hardaway who led Sierra Canyon with 14 had a very impressive night scoring in a variety of ways. Fast break dunks, offensive put backs. Down the stretch he displayed great footwork with a mid post move to a turnaround fade that brought oooohs and aaaahs from the DeMatha heavy crowd.
Unfortunately, a crowd disturbance caused the game to be cancelled with less than two mins to go in the fourth quarter. (DeMatha was leading 52-51 at the time the game was called)
Following the game, the President Of Pargon Marketing, Rashid Ghazi, issued the following statement through social media
Given the incident in the stands tonight during the CBC vs. Stags game at Wise High School we have cancelled Sunday’s event. We are making the decision out of the utmost of caution to ensure player and fan safety. Refunds will be available via Go Fan
I spoke to a group of teenagers girls outside of the Wise high school gymnasium who were witnesses to what happened including my daughter Imani Thomas who told me
“I was walking by the concession line when I just saw everyone start running. They were jumping down from the bleachers and stampeding toward the exit. I have never seen anything like this before. People were so scared they looked like they were running for their lives. So I started running too. Not like I was going to ask anyone what happened or what was going on. I saw running so I ran.”
Another teenager added,
“They should’ve had this at a bigger place, like where the Mystics play in Southeast. That’s a big arena so you wouldn’t have had to have people all in the aisles and packed around the balcony. That was just a bad set up. Someone could’ve really gotten hurt.”
Another teenage girl passionately chimed in with,
“This was all Sierra Canyon’s fault. They were so busy trying to protect Bronny, they caused all of this themselves. Nothing even happened. There was no fight, not even any punches were thrown. It was some young boys running off at the mouth at each other.”
Imani’s schoolmate added,
“Hey they gotta protect Lebron’s son. They can’t be having him out here risking it all.”
Which another girl responded with
“Yea but them being all scary for no reason caused all this and it wasn’t even that serious. Nobody would’ve reacted if they didn’t see them start running for their lives off the court. That wasn’t even necessary. They were scared scared (laughing) ain’t nobody gonna do nothing to Bronny. I wanted to see them finish the game and send them back to Cali with an L”
Imani chimed back in with,
“There were just way too many people in there in the first place. Wasn’t that a health code violation or fire marshall issue or something ?”
They were all absolutely correct in their assessments.
From where I was standing in the overly crowded balcony they were referring to, I could see everything and what I saw was two young kids who couldn’t have been any older than 6th or 7th grade start arguing with each other over to my right. Then, I looked to my left and saw security rushing over toward them and everyone started to look up into the stands to see what was going on. Then I looked back onto the court and I saw Sierra Canyon literally running for their lives off of the court. Which followed what could only be described as complete panic and pandemonium. But as the teenager pointed out, this was 100% prompted by Sierra Canyon’s sprint off the court.
It’s a shame because it was an amazing display of basketball being played by both teams filled with high lights.
A three pointer from freshman phenom Ashton Meeks after Jaden Winston makes the defender almost do the splits
https://twitter.com/capitolhoops/status/1586567933886701568?s=46&t=dspFtoqTaQJXGcR-QCZM3Q
A rebound put back, and one plus the foul by Malcolm Thomas brought the crowd to its feet
https://twitter.com/capitolhoops/status/1586570558401138688?s=46&t=dspFtoqTaQJXGcR-QCZM3Q
A pull up 3 pointer by Bronny James
https://twitter.com/capitolhoops/status/1586545569480179712?s=46&t=dspFtoqTaQJXGcR-QCZM3Q
But the play that brought the house down was made by DeMatha’s Chris McElveen. It’s a play that will be talked about in the DMV for quite sometime. A fast break dunk over Bronny James that almost caused the game to be paused in itself
https://twitter.com/capitolhoops/status/1586535252784095232?s=46&t=dspFtoqTaQJXGcR-QCZM3Q
Regardless of the unfortunate ending, this was a great display of basketball played in Prince George’s County Saturday night. Yes adjustments will have to be made the next time as suggested by the group of very astute and keenly aware teenage girls. But overall, the crowd definitely got their money’s worth. Even if it was a hiked up $15 a pop for a pre season scrimmage game.
