The Flint Hill Driving Spirit closed out their perfect season with 61-57 championship win over the feisty Herndon Hornets. The game was a bitterly fought contest, and personal rivalries and tension from a previous match led to an intentional foul, four technical fouls and two ejections. When all was said and done, Flint Hill prevailed, largely in part to Chrystian Brown’s 15 second-half points. 

Brown led all scorers with 16, Mo Berchie added 14 before being ejected and Trevor Ogundepo tallied 11 in a well-balanced Flint Hill attack.

“They did everything we preached and played with passion,” coach Emani Fenton said afterward. “I thought this was the most inspired effort all summer.”

Early on it looked as if Herndon was fully prepared for the slashing style of the Driving Spirit. Their bigs stayed at home and positioned themselves for blocks and stepped in for charges.

With the offense struggling, it took a great defensive play a few minutes into the game to get them going. Captain Daniel Giguere deflected a pass and saved it high into the air to Brian McDonald, who then outlet the ball to Berchie for a crafty “and-1” reverse layup.

However, a stretch of missed layups by the Driving Spirit prevented them from extending the lead and enabled the Hornets to stay in the game. Berchie splashed a deep 3-pointer and hit a tough turn around fade away in the final seconds of the half and the Driving spirit went into the break up 24-22.

Berchie came out firing in the second, hitting another shot from long range. But minutes later the man with the hot hand also became the one with the hot head, as disaster in the form of a flagrant foul struck.  Berchie received technical for his response. The two continued jawing after play had resumed and it didn’t take long for both to be thrown out.

While the Driving Spirit lost their floor general, the Hornets lost their best low post defender, and it didn’t take Brown long to capitalize. The rising junior went right at his defender and had his way down low, scoring 8 of 10 Flint Hill points in a run helped Flint Hill regain control of the game.

“Anytime you lose one of your leading scorers, you have to look to step up,” Brown said. “I took it upon myself to bare some of that burden.”

Brown also assisted in the highlight of the game, as he tapped an offensive board to McDonald, who went back up for the emphatic dunk to put the Driving Spirit up 50-45 with four minutes left. From there, Flint Hill was able to come up with defensive stops and knocked down enough free throws to secure the victory and the trophy.

“It feels really good to end the year with a perfect record, especially with this team, because we so closely bonded,” Brown said.

“Now, we just need to carry this over into November,” Fenton added.