A relatively unknown player going into his senior season, opponents got rude wakeup calls when they prepared for the Hornets but didn’t account for McLendon. He devastated offenses with his unrelenting ball-pressure; and even against the best teams, he – at the very least – made sure they had an off-night. Scoring out of necessity in the halfcourt, the turnovers that forced generated the bulk of his offensive output. Otherwise, McLendon’s competitive drive was the only fuel he needed.

Providing a key spark next to Collins as he has all season, McLendon put up a valiant fight in his last high school game before finishing with 19 points. He was consistently able to get a step on his man going downhill, leveraging his length effectively near the rim and showing an ability to finish with either hand. He showed a nice package of go-to moves to create space for his own shot in the midrange and stepped out for a pair of key 3s in the second half during Tatnall’s comeback attempt. Having received scholar-athlete honors prior to the game, McLendon could prove to be a valuable pickup for a wide variety of high-academic small-college programs along the east coast.

Helping support Collins across the board as he’s done all season long, McLendon was quiet in the scoring column for much of the game before breaking loose in the fourth quarter to help establish momentum for good. McLendon was effective filling in gaps on both ends of the floor, doing most of his damage around the rim both as a cutter and a quick, athletic slasher able to taking on contact on his way to the cup. While he didn’t make a 3, he showed himself to be capable from the perimeter on a handful of clean misses off the catch. McLendon is a bit undersized for a utility wing at the scholarship level but could be a really nice piece for a variety of small-college programs to key in on over the rest of the winter.