Vocational forward Aaron Williams savored the moment Wednesday at the end of the first quarter against No. 6 Simeon. He had just completed a quarter-ending, one-handed slam that ignited the home crowd.
He screamed in excitement as he stood under the basket, hands clenched.
A teammate escorted him back to the bench, but Williams’ expression never changed. He looked the same when the buzzer sounded at the end of his team’s 45-43 Public Red West upset.
“That brought the momentum to the maximum,” Williams said of his dunk. “We’ve never had this many people in our gym, so we wanted to come out and play hard and get a home win.”
The Cavaliers (19-4, 5-2) outscored the Wolverines 16-5 in the first quarter, when Williams had five of his team-high 13 points and Ryan Cunningham (9 points) hit two of his three 3-pointers.
That lead increased to 21-5 in the second quarter before the Wolverines (14-6, 6-1) went on an 11-4 run to make it 25-16 at the break. Jelani Neely had four of his game-high 15 points during the run.
“This team is just not very good,” Simeon coach Robert Smith said. “Everybody has us ranked real high, but we’re just not good at all.”
