Hanover junior Trayvonte Brown is the kind of player that can fire up fans on both sides of the court. At Lee-Davis on Friday night, his all-out, pedal-to-the-metal, show-no-fear playing style kept the Hawks students on their feet in enthusiasm and the C-feds fans howling in derision as he burned the home team for 21 points in a 65-58 win.

  Love him or hate him, there’s no question that Brown can play ball.

  “He’s an energy guy,” said Hanover head coach Darren Thornton. “He really works hard, especially in practice. In the games his energy is infectious, as the crowd knows, they can feel it when he really gets after it. The guys really feed off that especially on the defensive end.”

  “I just run a lot and do what I’ve got to do to help my team,” Brown said. “They work hard for me. I work hard for them.”

  Brown brings so much creative energy to the court that Thornton seldom pulls in the reins. “Sometimes I might have to pull them back, but sometimes it’s good to let him go because his quickness is kind of unbelievable sometimes,” he said.

  Hanover jumped on top of Lee-Davis early after Brown, Tyler Shannon and Jordan Wade combined to score all of the Hawk points for an 18-12 lead at the end of the first.

  Not to be overshadowed by Brown’s show, the game was also a coming out party for Lee-Davis forward Shrevon Clark. The 6-5 senior, who led everyone with 24 points and 16 rebounds, showed his developed range by stepping out of the post to hit jumpers. With Hanover threatening to break the game open Clark scored 10 straight points for Lee-Davis to pull them back within two, 20-18 with 6:32 left in the first half.

  “I think this is going to be a good confidence builder for him,” said Lee-Davis head coach Dave Ellington. “He’s been a little banged up and now it looks like he’s healthy. He had a lot of confidence shooting the ball.”

  Despite the Confederate run, as they did all night, Hanover repeatedly found an answer. With Lee-Davis threatening, the Hawks pushed the lead back to seven on layup by Xavier King, a steal and layup from Brown along with free throws from King and Shannon (17 points).

  If there was any flaw in Brown’s game on the night it was free throw shooting, something he is normally proficient at. Hanover missed out on an opportunity to widen the margin further when Brown missed four of five free throws to close out the half.

  “I don’t know what went on in my head when I missed those free throws because I know I hit 200 free throws in practice every day,” he said. “I just wasn’t feeling it today on the free throw line.”

  Lee-Davis edged their way back into the contest 38-34 at the start of the third on jumpers from Ladarein Autry (11 points) and Clark but once again Hanover answered.

  A jumper from Brown, a three from Shannon and back-to-back baskets from Nick Douglas gave the Hawks their largest lead, 45-34, with less than four minutes remaining in the quarter.

  But back came the C-feds. Three free throws from Clark, a put-back by JD Harvey and five straight points from Abdiel Bolden (11 points) trimmed the Hawk lead to one, 45-44 with 40 seconds left in the third.

  “We knew they was going to fight regardless of what we were going to throw at them,” Thornton said. “We knew they were going to come back. This is their home gym. This is a rivalry. We knew they were going to fight for it so we just had to keep digging deep and keep digging deep and try to make things happen.”

  A putback from Hanover’s Donte Haynesworth that just beat the buzzer gave the Hawks a 47-44 lead heading into the fourth.

  The Hawks edged ahead 52-46 but Lee-Davis climbed back within one on a Bolden dunk off a Cedric Holley pass with five minutes remaining.

  But Justin Peebles answered with a three and Douglas added three more on a plus-one field goal to hold off the charge.

  Lee-Davis trimmed the margin to five when Josh Brown found Clark inside for a score. But Trayvonte Brown connected on a pair of free throws then added three more for a 63-55 lead when he was fouled by Harvey and Lee-Davis was whistled for a technical.

  “We got it to one then mentally we had some lapses,” Ellington said. “We had a turnover. We gave them an easy put back. Then obviously we had a mental error when one of our players got a technical at a really, really bad time. But that’s how you learn.”

  The Hawks held on despite shooting 3-10 from the free throw line in the final two minutes.

  “That’s really been one of our strengths in the first two games,” Thornton said. “Our goal is to be a 90 percent shooting free throw team and we’ve been doing that the first couple of games but today was a little bit different. I think just the atmosphere, the intensity and everything. Sometimes you’re a little bit tired than you think.”

HANOVER 65, LEE-DAVIS 58
HANOVER (1-2, 1-0 Capital) — Billups 0, Brown 21, Wade 5, Haynesworth 2, Peebles 5, King 7, Shannon 17, Douglas 7, Toliver 0, Mahommod 0, Gary 0. Totals 21 18-33 65.
LEE-DAVIS (3-2, 0-1) — Holley 2, Clark 24, Bolden 11, Autry 11, Caudell 0, Harvey 3, Brown 6, Kunca 1, . Totals 22 14-21 58.
Hanover 18 15 11 21 — 65
Lee-Davis 12 18 14 14 — 58
3-point goals — H: Wade, Peebles, King, Shannon;
Highlights — H: Trayvonte Brown 11 for 17 from the free-throw line. L: Shrevon Clark 16 rebounds.