Yielding just eight first-half points Friday night, the Apprentice School men’s basketball team repeated as the U.S. Collegiate Athletic Association Division I national champion.
Third-seeded Villa Maria, one of the tournament’s host teams, was the crowd favorite for most of the people in SUNY Erie’s arena in Buffalo, New York. But the Builders shut down the Vikings in the first half, taking a hard-to-fathom 33-8 halftime lead.
Villa Maria (22-8) responded early in the second half, pulling to 33-16, but the Builders (19-7) remained comfortably ahead and earned the right to celebrate their fourth all-time championship afterward.
They had contributions up and down the lineup for their third victory in four days in Buffalo. Tournament MVP Adrion Wall, a senior shipfitter from Booker T. Washington High who added to his Division I Player of the Year regular-season honor, had 14 points. So did Wayne Hedgepeth, a freshman welder from Hampton High. All-tourney team pick Donovan Means, a sophomore insulator, had 10 points and 10 rebounds.
But none of them was Apprentice’s leading scorer. That was Chris Hinmon, a senior coating specialist who came off the bench to lead all scorers with 16 points.
Evan Kee, who coached Apprentice’s team to last season’s title, left for the same job at Randolph, an Old Dominion Athletic Conference college in Lynchburg. Michael Gainey, an Apprentice alum, was promoted from his assistant’s position and guided the Builders to a repeat in his first season as the head coach.
Originally Published: