Vernon Maddox didn’t practice Saturday and St. Peter’s coach Charlie Driscoll was unsure the point guard would be able to play in Sunday’s CHSAA Class AA intersectional first round game.
On Friday, Maddox found his grandfather, Robert Jenkins, dead in the West Brighton house he called home for 18 years. Family members and sources told The Post the 68-year-old Vietnam vet suffered head trauma, although the case was not immediately ruled a homicide.
“Someone just pretty much beat him to death,” grandson E.J. Maddox told The Post.
Despite a heavy heart, the 5-foot-4, 125-pound Maddox showed up in a big way Sunday, scoring 10 of his 11 points after halftime to guide St. Peter’s to a 59-54 victory against Archbishop Molloy at Holy Cross HS.
“He’s walking an emotional tightrope right now, but he came through,” Driscoll said. “Vernon is a tough little kid. He’s always the smallest kid on the floor, but he plays hard, defends hard and gives you whatever he has.”
The Eagles advance to the quarterfinals and will meet defending champions Christ the King Thursday at St. Francis Prep.
“This is great,” senior standout Stefan Bock said. “We advance, we play Christ the King, which is a great team, it’s a big challenge and we’ll try to go as far as possible.”
St. Peter’s (19-7) came out strong, leading 11-3 after the first quarter and although Molloy (13-13) rallied to tie the game at 32 late in the third quarter, the Eagles never trailed.
“We were hoping the defense would slow them down a little bit, they’d have to take some time off the clock and not go on a run,” Driscoll said. “We were really concentrating on the defensive end, on not letting them get second shots.”
Stefan Bock had a game-high 19 points and Andrew Cannon added 16 for the Eagles, who limited Molloy star Chris Dorgler to just 13 points.
St. Peter’s was well aware of Dorgler’s ability to hit big-time shots. A year ago in the same round on the same court, the Saint Rose-bound swingman scored the winning bucket at the buzzer to guide Molloy to a 43-41 victory.
“Last year was a heartbreaker at the very end of the game,” said Maddox, whose brother sat in the first row and constantly shouted words of encouragement during the game. “It hurt.”
This time, though, the Eagles held Dorgler in check and remained poised even as Molloy made a late push.
“We had to keep our composure the whole game,” Maddox said. “We didn’t want to get nervous, get frantic and make mistakes. They’re going to hit shots sometimes, but you just have to stick to your game, play hard on both sides and everything will work out.”
Chris Garcia had 17 points for the Stanners, who got as close as 54-50 with 34.5 seconds left, but Bock knocked down a pair of free throws and had a big layup to clinch the victory.
“We started hitting free throws at the end,” Bock said. “During the game though we missed a couple of easy free throws, but we just had to play hard defense. With our defense, our offense will work itself out.”