- All
McAdoo scores 29 in second half to lead West Bloomfield past North Farmington despite Hardy’s 46
West Bloomfield – Friday night’s game between West Bloomfield and North Farmington featured two of the state’s top guards in North Farmington’s Amauri Hardy and West Bloomfield’s Kevin McAdoo in a game that turned out to be a tale of two halves.
North Farmington jumped out to a 23-11 halftime lead behind 19 points from Hardy, who scored all 15 of the Raiders’ first half points.
While West Bloomfield wasn’t able to slow down Hardy in the second half, the Lakers and McAdoo came alive in the second half as they erased a double digit deficit in the second half to pick up a 63-58 overtime win behind 29 second-half points from McAdoo.
West Bloomfield head coach Jeremy Denha said that after scoring just one first half point, McAdoo proved to be the difference for his team in the second half.
“Kevin McAdoo woke up,” he said. “He was lost for two and a half quarters and then he just went nuts. I hope he can go nuts in every quarter for the rest of the season. I think he finally just had enough and took on the challenge and he did what he did.”
After a 3-point play from McAdoo to end the third quarter drew the Lakers to within nine at the end of the third quarter, the senior would deliver 3-pointers on back-to-back possessions for the Lakers, followed by another triple from Tre Harvey cut the deficit down to 40-37 with just over five minutes remaining.
West Bloomfield would take its first lead of the game less than a minute later when McAdoo converted another 3-point play to give the Lakers the 42-40 advantage.
“It was a real rough first half, I only had one point. Amauri went off, so I think we were down 11 at the half,” McAdoo said. “So I knew I had to pick it up in the second half and I did that, I stepped it up.”
With just 2:19 remaining, Harvey knocked down another 3-pointer while being fouled and gave the Lakers their largest lead of the game, 49-45, after making the free throw.
But just five second later, Hardy would convert a 3-point play of his own to cut the deficit down to just one and would later convert a pair of free throws with just 18 seconds left to send the game to overtime tied at 52-52.
“I came in basically looking to take my shots, looking to take the shots that were there and fortunately, I came out hot and scored the first 15 points,” said Hardy. “We couldn’t pull the win out, it was a great environment, the game was in our hands, but they (West Bloomfield) came back in the second half and a couple of missed free throws let them come back. Kevin McAdoo did his thing on offense, but we didn’t get the stops on the defensive end.”
In the overtime session, McAdoo accounted for a quick five points to help put the Lakers ahead 57-54 with two minutes remaining as the Lakers never surrendered the lead, holding off North Farmington in the closing seconds behind later free throws.
McAdoo noted that a minor change to his team’s game plan helped open options for himself and his teammates, which made a big difference for the Lakers on the offensive end in the second half.
“We changed our game plan,” he said. “We went with the same plan, but I got a pick off the zone and that opened up after that. I was able to get my teammates involved, I was able to get to the rim easier and everything started flowing.”
In the first half, North Farmington jumped out to an early 11-0 lead and led 15-6 after the first quarter as Hardy accounted for all 15 points for the Raiders.
North Farmington head coach Todd Negoshian said that he was pleased with his team’s ability to dictate the pace of play in the first half, but felt that the tempo of the game played more into the hands of West Bloomfield in the second half.
“That’s West Bloomfield, we saw them do that the other night against Bloomfield Hills,” he said. “I thought in the first half, we really slowed it down and made it a basketball game, but in the second half, we got caught up with it and going up and down. We’re not good enough to play without a purpose and we didn’t play with a purpose on a lot of possessions in the second half tonight.”
