TAMPA — Vontrey Hill scored 31 and Marcus Hill added 23 as Armwood pushed past host Alonso 75-59 Saturday in the championship game of the Alonso Holiday Classic.
As was the case during the semifinal round, Armwood's size inside proved to be just too much to handle for the opponent.
"It was definitely our game plan to get the ball inside to those guys," Armwood coach Jeff Pafunda said. "I was over on the sideline yelling at our guys to keep getting the ball inside."
The Hawks' inside dominance wasn't just at the offensive end. Armwood (11-3) enjoyed a double-digit rebounding advantage over the Ravens (9-7) and had six blocked shots to Alonso's zero.
The first half featured a one-on-one matchup between Vontrey Hill and Alonso's Malachi Christopher. Each player scored the first six field goals for his respective team. Vontrey Hill had 19 points at halftime while Christopher had 17 of his team-high 31 points at the break.
Leading 28-22 at halftime, Armwood opened the second half with a 9-0 run to break the game open.
Alonso responded with a 7-0 run of its own to cut the deficit to eight before the end of the third quarter, but that's as close as Alonso would get for the rest of the game.
Vontrey Hill, a 6-foot-3 senior, and Marcus Hill, a 6-foot-5 senior, (no relation) took over in the fourth quarter, answering every Alonso basket with a score. The duo combined for 23 points in the final quarter alone.
"It feels good to be named MVP, but I couldn't do it without my teammates," Vontrey Hill said. "The team needed me to be aggressive inside tonight, so that's what I tried to go out and do."
Vontrey Hill was named tournament MVP, and both he and Marcus Hill were named to the all-tournament team. They joined Alonso's Christopher and Greg Robinson, Wesley Chapel's Eric Thomas and East Lake's Brady Grimm.
East Lake defeated Ridgewood 70-53 for third place, and Wesley Chapel beat Gaither 84-51 for fifth place.