vs. Bridgeland High School: Tuesday, December 3

Against visiting Bridgeland High School, the JV Team started out extremely slow, digging themselves a deep hole. Down 1 -11 early in the first quarter, Stratford tried various combinations on the floor, but struggled to secure buckets and were clearly hurt by a pair of 3-point shooters from Bridgeland. The athletic Bridgeland group also aggressively took advantage of full court press and fast breaks against the Spartans. Xavier Jackson helped the team begin to close the gap, contributing 9 points in the first half. Recently-added Cody Hanlen immediately made his presence known with clean ball handling and solid defense.

Overall, despite numerous turnovers, the team did not give up, again slowly making headway, edging to within 6 at the half. Will Ubell scored a critical 3 toward the end of the 3rd quarter, dropping the Bridgeland lead to 5. In the 4th quarter, two foul shots by Alex Harris took the game within 1, 37 Stratford to 38 Bridgeland.

Turnovers once again helped Bridgeland to pull away. Two Ben Harris scores kept the teams within a couple of points nearing the 4-minute mark. However, Bridgeland continued its tough press and successfully implemented a 4-corner offense to wind down the clock, which opened up 3s and easy lay-ups. Their penalty foul shots essentially put the game away, with the final score 53-60.

Fortunately, there were some sparks shown by individual players during the course of the game that should bode well going forward. The final scoring was pretty balanced with Ben Harris leading the way with 13, Javier Jackson with 9, Alex Harris and Will Ubell with 8 each, and Jay Frazier adding 6 all in the second half.

vs. Klein Cain High School: Saturday, December 7

Fortunately, Stratford did not start as slowly with visiting Klein Cain High School as in the prior game with Bridgeland. They immediately won the tip-off and grabbed a score, with a quick pass from Cody Hanlen to Alex Harris.

After an even first quarter, the Spartans suddenly found themselves down by 7 (16 to 23) early in the second quarter, but then made seven rapid points to tie the game. Six of these were from a clutch 3 and an “and one” score from Will Ubell driving up the middle. Then Alex Harris put them up 27-23 with two successive buckets. The half ended with the Spartans up 29-24.

With a terrific full court press,11 points from Ben Harris, and 3s from Cody Hanlen and Teagan Tedrow, the Spartans never looked back and executed a nearly flawless 3rd quarter, extending the lead to 58-31. The Spartans showed great hustle in both the 3rd and 4th quarters (on both ends of the court) leading to an impressive final score 73 to 49.

Ben Harris led the team with 21 points (including four 3s), followed by Alex Harris with 16, Javian Gatewood with 8 points (including important 3rd-quarter scores), Anderson Fitzgerald with 7, and Will Ubell with 6.