Furious Annandale Comeback Thwarts Herndon

After a turnover filled first half, Annandale found itself playing catch up with the opportunistic Herndon Hornets, who led Tuesday night's game for the first 40 minutes and held an eight-point advantage late in the fourth quarter.

Then, D'Angelo Boyce engineered a rally in which the Atoms scored 15 points in the final three minutes and pulled out a 62-59 victory. Boyce finished with 21 points and four rebounds, but it was his defensive play at the end of the game that mattered most.

After Sanar Shamdeen scored to cut the Hornets' lead to six, Boyce stole the ball and was fouled. After hitting both free throws to pull the Atoms to within four at 55-51, the teams traded two baskets, with Annandale's Melvin Robinson drawing a foul on a layup.

Unable to convert the free throw, Ronnie McCoy grabbed the offensive rebound and fed Reggie Scott for a basket to close within two points. A Hornets' offensive foul immediately gave Annandale the ball back, and McCoy hit a 3-pointer to give the Atoms their first lead of the game at 60-59.

Boyce came up with another steal, was fouled and again hit both free throws to extend the lead to three. The Hornets had two chances to tie but missed both 3-point attempts.

The Atoms (3-1) cut their turnovers from 13 in the first half to six in the second, allowing Boyce to take over.

"We started attacking the basket and feeding the post, and it worked out for the best," Boyce said. "In the first half, I tried to get my team involved, but in the second half, we were down, and I decided to attack the basket and see what happened."

The second half ended up as a battle between Boyce and Herndon's Austin Hamilton, who scored 17 of his 24 points after the break. Hamilton was key in building the Hornets lead to as many as 10 points in the third quarter, but he made just one basket down the stretch as turnovers cut Herndon (3-2) possessions short.

The 25 points in the fourth quarter matched Annandale's best single-quarter mark for the season. They scored 25 in both the second and fourth quarter of a season opening 74-63 win over Wakefield. The teams combined for 15 points in the first two minutes of the final period.

After a back-and-forth first quarter in which Herndon's Jonathan Beltran hit two 3-pointers and scored eight of his 13 points, the second quarter featured an 8-0 run by each team. Scott finished with 15 points and six rebounds. DeAndre Thomas added eight points for Herndon.

Despite giving up height at nearly every position, the Atoms outrebounded the Hornets by a 37-11 margin. Robinson had 15 of those to go with his 14 points, thanks to a simple game plan.

"Everyone was saying 'hit the boards.' I ran the floor and got some easy buckets," he said. "I just kept feeding off my teammates."

Annandale Coach Anthony Harper praised the play of Boyce, who is finally living up to expectations in his senior season.

"It's what I've been looking for from him for the last three years," Harper said. "In years past he's taken a step back for other kids, but now he knows this is his team."

"We knew it wasn't going to be easy, especially with their style of play defensively," Harper said. "We didn't fold down the stretch, we actually stepped up and made plays. It's a confidence builder going into the rest of the season."