Hurricanes to honor seniors, aim to end six-game skid in final home game
They have lost six games in a row, 10 of the past 11 and their disappointing senior season is winding down as the Hurricanes play their final home game Friday night against Boston College (6 p.m., ACC Network).
Despite the struggles, the eight seniors being honored before the game have developed a special bond and maintained a positive attitude.
Three of them — Chris Lykes, Rodney Miller, and Sam Waardenburg — have been injured and watched from the bench virtually the entire season. Lykes sprained an ankle in the second game that still hasn’t completely healed, Miller hurt his back the fourth game and Waardenburg broke his foot in preseason.
The other five are determined to finish strong despite a depleted roster of six scholarship players and senior walk-on Willie Herenton, who said he is eager to go out and “make more memories together” on Friday.
“This last game definitely still has meaning to it,” senior guard Elijah
Olaniyi said. “It’s Senior Night. Winning the game is of upmost importance because it sets who we play in the ACC tournament. It’s March. A new season. The regular season didn’t go how we expected, but if we string a couple wins together and feel great about ourselves, even surprise some people.”
Boston College (4-13, 2-9 ACC) beat UM 84-62
when they last played Jan. 12. The Canes allowed 18 three-pointers, the most they have conceded in ACC play.
“For both teams this is a very big game,” UM coach Jim Larrañaga said. “We’ve lost too many in a row. We don’t want to end the regular season on a losing note. Boston College has gone through a coaching change, injuries, some COVID pauses. We
both want to go into the ACC tournament on a positive note. They crushed us up there, so I’m sure they are very confident they can do it again.
“Our guys are disappointed in how we played up there and hopefully want to bounce back and even the score.”
Amen Thompson didn’t even need to wait for his feet to hit the floor or for a chance to survey the court to know where his twin brother would be. The star wing skied for a rebound on one end of the floor and Ausar Thompson raced down to the other. The Thompson show was on for Pine Crest.
It’s a play they work on sometimes in practice, albeit usually just when they’re fooling around. Amen Thompson will grab a rebound and, before he even lands, he’ll fling a pass to the other end to his brother for a breakaway dunk. About halfway through the second quarter Thursday, they got to break it out in the Class 4A semifinals.
Ausar Thompson lined up a highlight-reel dunk, took a few steps and soared to the rim for a two-handed, tomahawk jam. The Panthers were rolling to a 68-47 win against Titusville Astronaut in Lakeland.
“We do that at practice as like a joke,” Amen Thompson said. “It just happened we did it four times this game.”
The Thompsons combined to score the first 16 points for Pine Crest
(20-1) and finished with 45 of the Panthers’ 68 points in their first final four appearance since 2012. Ausar Thompson finished with 27 points, four rebounds and five assists, and Amen Thompson had 18 points, seven rebounds and eight assists.
The 6-4 twins, who are both ranked in the top 50 of the 247Sports.com composite rankings for the Class of 2022, have Pine Crest on the brink of its fourth state title and first since 2012.
The Panthers, ranked No. 11 in the nation by MaxPreps, will return to the RP Funding Center on Saturday to face Alachua Santa Fe in the 4A championship.
“We just calmed down and started playing our game, and that’s defense,” coach Ike Smith said. “Once we got a couple runouts, a couple steals, we got the lead a little bit and we had control of the game after that.”
It took more than five minutes for Pine Crest and the Thompsons to find their game.
Late in the first quarter, the Panthers trailed 7-5 before Ausar Thompson ignited them.
The star wing stepped around a screen and canned a pull-up threepointer to put Pine Crest ahead 8-7. The floodgates were open. Astronaut (26-4) answered with a short jumper, but guard Ben Brodsky launched an outlet pass to Thompson for a breakaway dunk five seconds later to put the Panthers ahead for good 10-9.
On the next possession, Pine Crest forced a miss, and wing Eros Carpio grabbed the rebound and flung another outlet pass to Thompson for a breakaway dunk. Just before the end of the quarter, Amen Thompson went to the line for two free throws and missed both, but Ausar Thompson stole the ball in the backcourt and hit a turnaround fadeaway jumper at the buzzer to send the Panthers into the second quarter ahead 15-9. Amen Thompson started
the second quarter by connecting on an alley-oop to his brother.
After a 1-of-10 start, Ausar Thompson’s fiveconsecutive field goals put Pine Crest in control. Seven of the Thompsons’ 13 assists went from one brother to the other.
“We’ve been playing with each other since third grade, so I think I know this dude pretty well,” Ausar Thompson said.
“We shared the womb together.”
The second half became showcase for the four-star guards. They connected for multiple alley-oops and piled up nearly a dozen dunks. In the final two minutes, the twins punctuated the blowout with two more highlights.
First, Amen Thompson drew the defense and fired a lob to Ausar Thompson for another alley-oop, then Amen capped the win with a reverse slam in transition
before the Panthers emptied their bench.
Carpio, Brodsky, forward Leo Ghiloni and the Thompsons spent the final seconds sitting alongside one another on the sideline. It’s a familiar feeling for the five starters, who have played together on varsity since the Thompsons were in eighth grade and Carpio, Brodsky and Ghiloni were all freshmen.
This weekend, their run in Fort Lauderdale will finish. The Thompsons want to make sure their seniors go out as champions.
“We’ve been playing with these dudes for four years,” Ausar Thompson said. “At first, it was a little shaky ... but it’s the chemistry, I feel, so I’d love to win a championship with these dudes.”