Kansas-bound Grimes lighting up scoreboard
Fresh off committing to university, College Park senior on scoring binge
College Park coach Clifton McNeely knew Quentin Grimes was due for a big scoring performance entering the team’s nondistrict matchup against Humble.
Grimes, who signed with the University of Kansas earlier this month, collected just 12 points in a loss to Shadow Creek on Friday. But the senior guard came back with a vengeance on Monday afternoon, pouring in 47 points to lead the Cavaliers to a 105-80 victory over the visiting Wildcats.
Grimes went 19-for-25 from the floor and also finished with eight rebounds and five assists. It was his fifth career 40-point game and just one point shy of his career high — a 48-point outburst against Brazosport last season.
“I knew after Friday that this kid was coming in to play,” McNeely said. “It wouldn’t have mattered who was in here today. I think the big part was when we came in to practice on Saturday, eight of those kids stayed after a two-hour practice, and they got shots up, and they worked for another hour and 15 minutes. That’s the type of team that we have this year.”
College Park (2-2) also received big contributions from its other seniors. Deon Blakemore finished with 12 points and five assists, and Kimani Anderson added nine points and a team-high 10 rebounds. Shannon Scott scored 14 points, 12 of which came in the fourth quarter as the Cavaliers were putting the win on ice.
College Park held a 2315 advantage at the end of the opening quarter and pushed its lead to double digits early in the second. Humble responded with a 9-2 run to pull within three points of the lead at 27-24, but that’s as close as the Wildcats would get for the
“I knew after Friday that this kid was coming to play. It wouldn’t have mattered who was in here today. ” - Quentin Grimes, College Park Coach
remainder of the game.
The Cavaliers grabbed a 13-point edge at the 1:20 mark on Grimes’ fifth 3-pointer of the contest and later took a 49-36 lead into the break. The future Jayhawk led all scorers at halftime with 23 points.
Humble (3-4) was never able to cut the deficit to single digits in the final two quarters, and College Park piled up 35 points in the fourth.
Cameron Noel put College Park over the century mark on a pair of free throws with just more than a minute left to play.
It was the fifth time in the past two seasons that the Cavaliers have scored at least 90 points, shooting 70 percent (42-for-60) from the field as a team.
“We knew coming out that we were about to go against a very physical, very athletic team,” McNeely said. “They had great success in the Texas Invitational last week, knocking off Converse Judson and some other guys. So we knew they were going to be a tough out today. I thought our kids played very well, and we did a much better job today of handling the pressure and not turning the basketball over.”
Jaylon Alsanders led the way for the Wildcats with 25 points, while Garrett Hill and Joe Temple finished with 18 and 12, respectively.
“Our guys, I thought we played hard, but we gave up too many layups, too many easy baskets,” Humble coach Lair Crawford said. “Offensively, I thought we did a pretty good job, and we can score when we want to and get good shots. The difference is No. 5 (Grimes) — he’s the difference.”
College Park was headed to Illinois to compete in the Washington Tournament of Champions.
“They’re going to get to play at a big-time level against big-time competition,” McNeely said. “Our whole thing is that we want to get better and better and better, and our focus is to get ready for the Lufkin Panthers when they come to town in January to start that district round. Our schedule is set up so that we have to compete each and every night. We don’t want any off days.”