Mission completed for coach Devin Hoehn and a handful of Fayetteville State men’s basketball players.
A year ago, Hoehn and five players were members of a Bluefield State team that suffered a narrow loss to Virginia State that deprived the Big Blue of their first Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association Tournament championship.
On Saturday evening, that group earned the coveted title by helping the Broncos defeat — in a strange twist — Bluefield State, 71-68, in the tournament final at CFG Bank Arena in Baltimore.
A crowd that included Maryland Gov. Wes Moore and Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott watched Fayetteville State (23-6), the No. 1 seed from the Southern Division, capture a tournament crown to add to the ones earned in 1973 and 2022 and extend its winning streak to 17 in a row. Fans also got to witness senior shooting guard Ezekiel Cannedy get on one knee at center court after the game and propose to his girlfriend, Mariah Boyd, who is a member of the team’s cheerleading squad.
Saturday’s title game posed an unusual angle. On April 9, the Broncos and coach Luke D’Alessio announced “a mutual decision to part ways,” and the next day, Hoehn stepped down as Bluefield State’s coach to fill the vacancy at Fayetteville State. On May 22, the Big Blue named D’Alessio as Hoehn’s successor.
Hoehn acknowledged the difficulty of being tasked with beating his former employer of four years.
“That school is always going to be family in my heart,” he said. “They took a chance on a 27-year-old young man that had never been a head coach before, and a lot of schools wouldn’t have taken a chance on me. They did. So I’m always going to be thankful for them. They helped change my life.”
The five players who followed Hoehn to Fayetteville State from Bluefield State played starting roles in the victory. Senior point guard Terrell Williams compiled a game-high 29 points, four rebounds and three steals en route to being named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player; senior small forward Larry Howell racked up 14 points, two rebounds and two steals; and senior shooting guard Darius Boben contributed 14 points and a game-best seven steals. Senior power forward Romeo Aquino totaled six points, three rebounds and two steals, and junior shooting guard Travon Cooper II chipped in three points.
Saturday’s win was the culmination of a yearlong objective, Howell said.
“It’s so rewarding because we felt like we should have gotten it last year,” he said, referring to a 71-64 loss to Virginia State. “When the news came out that he got the job at Fayetteville, the first talk was, we’re going to run it back, and we’re going to get what we should’ve gotten the first time, and that’s what we did.”
Similarly, D’Alessio brought two players with him to Bluefield State from the Broncos. Graduate student center Anthony Latty amassed 18 points, 10 rebounds and four blocks, and senior shooting guard Myles Pierre finished with 13 points, four rebounds and two assists. Junior point guard Ellija Preddy paced the team with 20 points, nine rebounds and steals.
Old habits die hard for D’Alessio. He said after an 81-74 win against Fayetteville State on Dec. 15, he got upset after reviewing the Big Blue’s box score. Then he realized he was looking at the Broncos’ stats.
D’Alessio said tangling with Fayetteville State in the tournament final added some consternation.
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“It was really tough, especially for this game,” he said. “The regular-season game we had earlier in the year at our place, it was OK, no problem. This one, with the emotions from seeing the crowd, obviously, these people know me. In fact, they were cheering for me after the game, the Fayetteville State fans. So it was really emotional, and I had to block that out.”
And while the Broncos may have been the top team in the conference, Bluefield State was arguably the hottest squad. The team knocked off Claflin, the No. 2 seed from the Southern Division, 70-68, in a quarterfinal on Thursday and Virginia State, the No. 1 seed Northern Division, 71-66, in a semifinal on Friday.
The Big Blue outrebounded Fayetteville State, 37-16, and owned an 18-6 advantage in second-chance points. But Bluefield State committed 21 turnovers to the Broncos’ seven, and the latter leveraged that margin into a 25-6 gap in points off of turnovers.
Trailing 65-62 with less than three minutes left in the second half, Fayetteville State ripped off eight unanswered points for a 70-65 lead with 38 seconds remaining. The burst was fueled by a pull-up jumper and a layup in a 14-second span by Howell.
Pierre drained a 3-pointer from the left wing to draw the Big Blue within 70-68 with 32 seconds to go. But Howell converted one of two free throws with 10 seconds left, and Preddy’s 3-point attempt before the buzzer sounded was off the mark.
Williams, who made a season-high four 3-pointers, said winning the title made the decision and his four teammates to follow Hoehn from Bluefield State to the Broncos worth it.
“Last year, we were supposed to get it, but it wasn’t ready,” he said. “We worked our butts off the whole summer, preseason into the season to be right here. I’m just overly grateful.”
Hoehn called it “super rewarding” to help the five players he brought.
“To see those guys so happy and see them with tears of joy in their eyes, this is what you do this for,” he said. “It’s bigger than basketball because at the end of the day, the ball is going to eventually stop bouncing, and I’m big on relationships. So I’ll never forget this – ever.”
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