On the final night of his high-school career, Joey Boyle had the misfortune of tangling with former teammate and longtime rival, Jesse Konadu (24 points, eight rebounds, eight assists). The Mount Vernon Majorsended the Rebels’ season with a decisive 77-63 win in the first round of the Northern Region tournament Monday.
“I’ve played with Konadu since we were 9, so I know how good he is,” Boyle said after the game. “Konadu is a great passer, he’s quick and really tough to guard. I always know what he’s going to do, but he’s relentless, you really can’t rattle him, and he outplayed us tonight.”
The Majors took command of the game at the outset, building a 16-4 lead. Early on, Fairfax was keying on Konadu, who averages 21 points per game, and so Juwan Bullard was finding himself with plenty of open looks.
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“Pick your poison,” said Rebels’ coach P.J. Kelly. “We started out in a diamond and one, four guys in a zone, and matching up on Konadu, but it was leaving a lot of space for Bullard.”
But after Mount Vernon’s sizzling start, Fairfax started to settle down, and sophomore guard Zach Burnett (16 points), and senior Turkel Anwar (15 points) started dialing up their outside shots, with Burnett scoring 12 points in the first half, and Anwar 10. Burnett nailed a 3-pointer with just less than three minutes to play in the first half, to bring his team to within one, but Bullard went on a rampage in the closing minute of the half, scoring seven points to extend his team’s lead back to eight at the half.
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In the second half, Fairfax watched Bullard more closely, but allowed his partner in crime, Konadu to run wild. The lead grew to 21 points with just fewer than three minutes to play, and while Fairfax made up some ground near the end, the result was never in doubt.
After the loss, Boyle, who has a tryout at Slippery Rock coming up in April, still hadn’t come to grips with the fact that the season, and his high-school career, had come to an end.
“I haven’t stomached this loss yet, I’ll think about it tonight, but I’m going to be playing basketball somewhere next year, so I’m not finished yet,” he said.
Kelly pinned his hopes on the future.
“Next year is a big year for our program, and there’ll be a lot of pressure on me, which is good, it makes you work harder,” he said. “We have to do better, and we will.”
