Warriors get final burst of momentum to defeat Wildcats
Lead Summary
By
Stephen Forsha-sforsha@gmail.com
MOWRYSTOWN — It's not usual for teams who get 13-point scoring runs to have to grind out a victory, but that's what happened Friday night at Whiteoak High School. Facing foul troubles in the first half, the Eastern Brown Warriors held off a hard-charging Whiteoak Wildcat team for a 61-54 Southern Hills Athletic Conference win.
The game was unusual in the fact that at one point in the second quarter, the Warriors had four starters on the bench with two fouls, as they broke away early in the game with a 22-5 lead with 5:31 left in the first half over the host Wildcats.
WHS head coach Tom Wessner agreed this game was a game of runs and momentum.
"It was a game of runs, but the scoring was unusual in the fact each of us had double-digit scoring runs, and they had one last one in them and we ran out of time," he said.
Included in the aforementioned 22-5 score was the opening of the second frame where EB went from a 9-5 first quarter lead to a 22-5 advantage with just over 5:00 left in the second quarter.
EB's points in the scoring run were by Curtis Burns, Jonathon Stivers and Nathan Scott, who scored the final six points in that span.
Scott led EB with 20 points, followed by Burns with 12 and Chase Lawson with 11.
With EB starters having to sit on the bench with two fouls each, the Wildcats took full advantage from the 5:09 mark until the buzzer sounded to end the half with Gage Carraher (who totaled 12 points) sinking a jumper off a rebound, which started a 13-2 WHS run to end the quarter.
Following Carraher was Luke Taggert, who led WHS with 17 points, with a jumper, and then came two free throws from Tyler Williams. Blake Trueblood then hit one free throw after being fouled. Following two Eastern Brown turnovers, Doc Seip connected with a jumper, and Taggert made back-to-back free throws, leaving 1:37 in the quarter.
Williams stole the ball and scored two points with a fast-break layup, bringing the Wildcats within four points of tying the score at 22-18 as WHS scored the first 13 points of the aforementioned 13-2 run to end the opening half. Riley Prine of EB scored the final points of the second with a three-point play. Prine ended the game with nine points.
"We took care of the ball much better in the second quarter," Wessner said. "We had some good transition baskets, and we made better passes. We had better looks at the hoop, too.[[In-content Ad]]
"We held their best player, Chase Lawson, to no 3-pointers, but they (EB) had players step up and make the 3-pointers."
At the start of the second half, the momentum began to fall to the Warriors as they eventually took a 29-22 lead with a put-back bucket and jumper by Scott, offsetting points from Seip and Taggert. Seip ended the game with 16 points.
The pattern continued with Scott answering Taggert's layup with another jumper of his own for a 31-24 lead.
Burns sank a 3-pointer with 4:21 left in the third, but Carraher, Seip and Taggert scored six straight points in under a minute, cutting the Warriors' lead to four points with 2:15 left in the third.
Burns was there, again, answering that 6-0 run with a 3-pointer, and after two free throws by Seip, Chase Lawson connected with a two-point bucket and an EB lead of 39-34 with 1:32 left in the quarter. Again, like EB did again WHS, it was Carraher answering the points of the Warriors as he sank a 3-pointer with 1:09 on the third-quarter clock, as WHS eventually ended the quarter trailing by two points.
WHS opened the final quarter by tying the score at 39 with a Brent Davis put-back and taking the lead with a steal and layup by Carraher, forcing a timeout by EB, as the crowd on both sides reached maybe the highest level of loudness it had the entire evening.
EB eventually tied the score at 41 following the timeout and built a lead they never relinquished with a steal and two points from Scott and two points via the free throw by Prine.
The Warriors led for the final 4:59, but not without battling to hold onto the lead when Carraher sank another 3-pointer and Trueblood swished a jumper to make it a three-point game with 1:41 left on the clock.
That was as close as the Wildcats got as EB outscored the host team, 8-3 to end the game, including making six free-throw attempts in the final 42.3 seconds of game time. In the fourth quarter alone, EB was 9-of-9 from the free-throw line. For the game, EB was a perfect 14-of-14 from the free-throw line. WHS was 9-of-16.
In JV play, EB defeated WHS, 40-22. Leading EB were Mickey Hundley with eight points and Patrick Connor with seven. For WHS, Jason Jones scored eight.
WHS will play again on Jan. 15 when they host Portsmouth in a non-league game.
The game was unusual in the fact that at one point in the second quarter, the Warriors had four starters on the bench with two fouls, as they broke away early in the game with a 22-5 lead with 5:31 left in the first half over the host Wildcats.
WHS head coach Tom Wessner agreed this game was a game of runs and momentum.
"It was a game of runs, but the scoring was unusual in the fact each of us had double-digit scoring runs, and they had one last one in them and we ran out of time," he said.
Included in the aforementioned 22-5 score was the opening of the second frame where EB went from a 9-5 first quarter lead to a 22-5 advantage with just over 5:00 left in the second quarter.
EB's points in the scoring run were by Curtis Burns, Jonathon Stivers and Nathan Scott, who scored the final six points in that span.
Scott led EB with 20 points, followed by Burns with 12 and Chase Lawson with 11.
With EB starters having to sit on the bench with two fouls each, the Wildcats took full advantage from the 5:09 mark until the buzzer sounded to end the half with Gage Carraher (who totaled 12 points) sinking a jumper off a rebound, which started a 13-2 WHS run to end the quarter.
Following Carraher was Luke Taggert, who led WHS with 17 points, with a jumper, and then came two free throws from Tyler Williams. Blake Trueblood then hit one free throw after being fouled. Following two Eastern Brown turnovers, Doc Seip connected with a jumper, and Taggert made back-to-back free throws, leaving 1:37 in the quarter.
Williams stole the ball and scored two points with a fast-break layup, bringing the Wildcats within four points of tying the score at 22-18 as WHS scored the first 13 points of the aforementioned 13-2 run to end the opening half. Riley Prine of EB scored the final points of the second with a three-point play. Prine ended the game with nine points.
"We took care of the ball much better in the second quarter," Wessner said. "We had some good transition baskets, and we made better passes. We had better looks at the hoop, too.[[In-content Ad]]
"We held their best player, Chase Lawson, to no 3-pointers, but they (EB) had players step up and make the 3-pointers."
At the start of the second half, the momentum began to fall to the Warriors as they eventually took a 29-22 lead with a put-back bucket and jumper by Scott, offsetting points from Seip and Taggert. Seip ended the game with 16 points.
The pattern continued with Scott answering Taggert's layup with another jumper of his own for a 31-24 lead.
Burns sank a 3-pointer with 4:21 left in the third, but Carraher, Seip and Taggert scored six straight points in under a minute, cutting the Warriors' lead to four points with 2:15 left in the third.
Burns was there, again, answering that 6-0 run with a 3-pointer, and after two free throws by Seip, Chase Lawson connected with a two-point bucket and an EB lead of 39-34 with 1:32 left in the quarter. Again, like EB did again WHS, it was Carraher answering the points of the Warriors as he sank a 3-pointer with 1:09 on the third-quarter clock, as WHS eventually ended the quarter trailing by two points.
WHS opened the final quarter by tying the score at 39 with a Brent Davis put-back and taking the lead with a steal and layup by Carraher, forcing a timeout by EB, as the crowd on both sides reached maybe the highest level of loudness it had the entire evening.
EB eventually tied the score at 41 following the timeout and built a lead they never relinquished with a steal and two points from Scott and two points via the free throw by Prine.
The Warriors led for the final 4:59, but not without battling to hold onto the lead when Carraher sank another 3-pointer and Trueblood swished a jumper to make it a three-point game with 1:41 left on the clock.
That was as close as the Wildcats got as EB outscored the host team, 8-3 to end the game, including making six free-throw attempts in the final 42.3 seconds of game time. In the fourth quarter alone, EB was 9-of-9 from the free-throw line. For the game, EB was a perfect 14-of-14 from the free-throw line. WHS was 9-of-16.
In JV play, EB defeated WHS, 40-22. Leading EB were Mickey Hundley with eight points and Patrick Connor with seven. For WHS, Jason Jones scored eight.
WHS will play again on Jan. 15 when they host Portsmouth in a non-league game.