Calvin Brothers scored 28 points as Hopewell held off a late charge by Lakeland to take a 64-62 win in a preseason benefit game Tuesday evening at Lakeland. After the Blue Devils jumped out to a 20-point lead midway through the second quarter, the Cavaliers roared back to take the lead several times before free throws in the final minute by Jon Presley and Tyrus Smith made the difference. The event raised over $500 for the participating schools and the Virginia High School League (Verona defeated Norcom in an earlier contest).

Down 4-3 a minute into the game, the Blue Devils possessed the momentum. Brothers dropped in a three-pointer to put them on top, and then scored nine of his team’s next 12 points as Hopewell charged to a 17-4 lead. A Reginald Evans free throw and Mike Camp jumper gave Lakeland its first points in five minutes, but Tim Daniels and Presley scored in the final minute to end the first quarter ahead, 20-7.

Jay Rainey led Hopewell to a 29-9 lead in the first three minutes of the second quarter, but Lakeland mounted its first real offensive attack with 4:28 to play. Corey Davis, Linwood Wiggins, and Eric Ruffin scored to cut the lead to 29-15, and the teams went back and forth for the next two minutes.

Then Wiggins and Reginald Evans scored in the last minute, and Wiggins stole an inbounds pass and sent it to Mike Camp, who banked home a layup at the buzzer to end the half with the Blue Devils up, 34-25.

Neither team scored more than one basket at a time for the first two minutes of the third quarter, but the Cavaliers went on another run with 5:38 to play. Wiggins, who led his team with 15 points, swished a pair of free throws, and Davis rolled in another layup with 4:36 to play. Kenneth Reid scored four points in 54 seconds, and Ruffin drained two more one-pointers to get as close as 40-39.

Brothers scored his team’s first points in 4:40 with two free throws, but Ruffin and Reid dropped in jumpers as the Cavaliers took their first lead since the game’s first minute, 43-42. Brothers broke through for a jumper as the buzzer as the third quarter ended in a 44-44 tie.

With the Cavaliers ahead 48-47 with 6:15 to play, the Blue Devils scored six straight points for a 53-48 lead with 5:44 on the clock. They maintained the five-point lead until the four-minute mark, when Davis and Ruffin dropped in three baskets for a 58-57 lead at 3:16. Brothers and Rainey scored to go back up 61-58, but Tariq Alahad swished a pair of free throws to cut the lead to one with two minutes to go. Antonio Gee knocked in a free throw to up the lead to two at 1:51, but Ruffin snatched an inbounds pass and knotted the score at 62 with 53 seconds on the clock.

Presley tried for a layup, but he was fouled, and sank a free throw with 20 seconds to go. Camp’s layup went around the rim and fell off at the seven-second mark, and Smith grabbed the rebound. He was immediately fouled, and sank the second of two free throws, and the Cavaliers missed two long shots in the remaining time.