BARNES BUSTS OUT IN THIRD QUARTER, USES B-DAY TO BASH OAK PARK 

BY SCOTT M. BURNSTEIN

SOUTHFIELD

Most people celebrate their birthday by eating some cake and blowing out a few candles. Southfield's standout junior point guard Desmond "Pee Wee" Barnes, celebrated the occasion by blowing out the opposition on the basketball court. The shifty 6-0 Barnes ushered in his 17^th year on this earth by scoring 17 of his 20 points in the second half, including 13 straight to end the third quarter, to lead the Bluejays to a runaway 88-67 comeback victory over a spunky Oak Park squad in OAA Red Division action on Thursday night.

Adding to Barnes' heroics was the play of his best friend and backcourt mate, Carlton Brundidge. The 6-2 junior combo guard, who is already verbally committed to continue his career in college at Michigan, notched a game-high 29 points, 19 of them coming in the final 16 minutes of play which saw Southfield overcome a halftime deficit to put up 55 second half points.

Both Barnes and Brundidge added six assists and five rebounds to augment their dual impressive outings. Along with playing in front of an enthusiastic home crowd, Brundidge was being watched by his future college coach too, as Wolverines sideline chief, John Belien, sat in the baseline bleachers watching his prized recruit with a frequent smile across his face.

Southfield pushes its overall record to 14-4, 9-3 in the OAA Red, good for a first place tie with crosstown rival, Southfield-Lathrup, with one week left to play in the regular season. The Bluejays are in the midst of what could end up being an historic campaign. The program hasn't claimed a conference championship since 1992, when NBA'er Ira Newble was rocking the blue and white, and has not won a district since the mid-1980s.

"This whole season has been a wonderful, fun, new adventure," said Southfield head coach, Gary Teasley, in his office following the game. "The coaching staff and myself have been stressing balance this year and it's showing on the floor and in the stat sheet. We're on the right track heading for the state tournament which I call, "The Final Exam." All these big games leading up to it are like pop quizzes. And we've showed nicely in a lot of those quizzes. Tonight was one and we passed. If we keep playing this way good things will continue to happen."

Although they ended up being beat by 21 points, the Knights were hot from the outside in the first half and used their ultra-accurate shooting from the perimeter (71 percent from the field) to hold a 36-33 lead at the intermission. Oak Park jumped in front 46-41 midway through the third quarter and then went cold.

Taking advantage of the Knights' chilly marksmanship, Barnes went to town over the final three and a half minutes of the quarter. His 15-foot jumper pulled Southfield to within one point, at 46-45, and then his steal, hoop, foul, and free throw put the Bluejays ahead for good at 48-46. A buzzer-beating 3-pointer from the deep right wing by Barnes made it 13 straight points and gave his team a 56-47 advantage going into the fourth.

"In the first half I wasn't playing my game and I wasn't being aggressive, but once I hit my first shot in the third quarter, I knew it was on," said Barnes in the lockeroom. "The basket just looked wide open to me the whole second half. Everything I put up, I felt like it was going to go in. I guess you could call it, "the zone", or whatever and I took advantage of it."

Riding the momentum from Barnes' third quarter performance and being cheered on by their frenetic collection of fans, the Bluejays gunned the engine to the floor in the affair's final stanza and blew the games' doors of their proverbial hinges in "showtime fashion".

Junior center Patrick Onwenu's authoritative slam dunk off a steal and pass from Barnes to open the fourth quarter's scoring set the tone for what was about to come, specifically a virtual dipsey doo dunkeroo clinic of high-flying jams over the game's closing seven and a half minutes. After Onwenu's slammer jammer, it was Jaylon Floyd's turn as the 6-5 junior pogo stick stuffed home an alley-oop dunk via a pass from Xavier Cross. Then it was Onwneu again, who brought the crowd to its feet with a reverberating two-hand slam on the break. The little guys got in on the action next when junior guard Joshua Brown stole a Knights pass at midcourt and floated in for a vicious one-hander. To put a cap on things, senior skywalker, DuJuan Wims slammed home a transition bucket off a pass from Brundidge with less than eight seconds left to play to make it a wrap.

Onwenu had nine points, eight rebounds, and three blocks and played hard-nosed defense in the post for Teasley and the 'Jays. Landon Atterberry, Teasley's active and underrated power forward, scored 12 points, blocked two shots and grabbed nine boards.

Senior swingman Kenny Harper led Oak Park with 19 points and 10 rebounds. Junior point guard Terry Starks has 11 points and six assists for the Knights as well. Oak Park is now 3-15, 3-9 in conference play.

The Southfield win avenges a loss to the Knights back in January. 18 of Brundidge's 29 points came from the charity stripe as the all-state cager, sank 18 of his 19 attempts on the night.

Hoping to build on the comeback victory and clinch the league crown, the Bluejays get back on the court next Tuesday, when they travel to North Farmington to face-off against a very good and battle-tested Raiders' team. North Farmington nipped Southfield at Southfield on a game-winning basket by Chris Stewart – off a steal from the county's leading scorer, Kyle Vinales – with less than 10 seconds to play two weeks ago.

One of the big reasons for the Bluejays success this season is the addition of Clennie Brundidge, Carlton's dad, on the Southfield bench as Teasley's number one assistant coach. The elder Brundidge played his college ball at Army in the 1970s and was coached by current Duke Blue Devils hoops guru, Mike Krzyzewski. Carlton's older brother, Dale, is currently playing at Wayne State after prepping at Birmingham Detroit Country Day and helping lead the Yellowjackets to the 2007 Class B state championship.

"We picked up our defense in the second half and Pee Wee played unbelievable in the third quarter," said Carlton. "Coming out of halftime, Pee Wee told me, 'don't worry, I got you', so I knew he had something in mind and then he just got in the groove and I looked to get him the ball. Everyone got it done today. Pat and Landon were huge down low and all the guards were doing their jobs perfectly when we made our comeback. I love these guys. We're family, we're always going to have eachother's backs."