Wednesday 1/8 vs. Cy Ridge
It was a very pivotal game for the Spartans as we did not want to start District play 1-3! Ridge came in very focused, very aggressive, and ready to play! They traditionally always play us tough, and this game was no different.
The first quarter was a battle that ended with us leading 11-10. As mentioned, Ridge was very physical and made some unbelievably difficult shots on well-contested shots. For the quarter, CJ Williams was very aggressive and was comfortable with Ridge’s physicality, leading the team with seven points, with Joaquin Andrews and JD Cheeves each contributing two points in the quarter. In the second quarter, they got the best of us by one point, outscoring us 14-15, which made the halftime score 25-25. Joaquin showed that he has regained his health and scored nine big points in the quarter, with CJ staying hot with four points, and LD Hoskins contributed a free throw.
For some reason this year, the third quarter has not been good to us at all. But not this time! We turned the tables on Ridge and picked up our defensive intensity! We started pressing full-court and began to aggressively defend one-on-one in the half-court, which caused Ridge problems executing their offense. We handled their physicality to outscore them in the quarter 12-5. In the quarter, Kobe Hines scored seven points on fantastic drives to the basket, Joaquin scored three points, and JD contributed two points.
In the final quarter, Ridge did not give up and never allowed us to ever get comfortable with our lead. They outscored us 10-12 but it was not enough to deny us our first District win of the year, 47-42 and even our District record to 2-2. In the quarter, JD led us with four points and two critical free throws with under a minute to play to help us secure the victory. Joaquin contributed three points, and Vasili Fakaris scored two points in the quarter.
For the game, Joaquin led us in scoring with 17 points, CJ scored 11 before he was injured with an elbow to the nose, JD scored eight points, Kobe contributed seven points, Vasili had two points, and LD chipped in with a free throw.
Saturday 1/12 vs. Memorial at Don Coleman Coliseum
It was the first of two rivalry games with the Mustangs at the DCC and it did not disappoint! It was an early game at 10:30 am, which traditionally has been a recipe for Spartan disaster.
True to form, early on we could not score the ball at all. We had way too many turnovers, missed opportunities, and missed shots. We were playing into Memorial’s hands as their style of play is very methodical and deliberate with an eye toward limiting the overall number of possessions in the game and keeping the score low. They were successful, which made this game extremely tight. At the end of the first quarter, Memorial held a slight lead over us. The second quarter was a bit of the same, but Memorial was able to take advantage of our miscues and get some easy buckets to at one point lead us by as many as nine points.
In the second half, we started to chip away at the lead by utilizing our press and finally getting some shots to fall. We stiffened our defense by denying post entry passes and helping on their back-screens and backdoor cuts, which made scoring for the Mustangs difficult. We were able to cut their lead to four and it stayed that way for most of the third quarter. During this quarter, JD Cheeves really played well, keeping us in the game with key steals and scoring prowess on baseline drives!
Finally in the fourth quarter, we had a breakthrough! The ball started going in for the Spartans! Joaquin Andrews did all his scoring in this pivotal quarter, CJ Williams was able to score two critical mid-range jumpers, and JD continued his baseline drive mastery along with solid playmaking from Vasili Fakaris, Trent Burke, and Elliot Harlan. We fought back in the quarter to force overtime.
In overtime we scored first to take a quick lead, and it was a back-and-forth overtime period that came down to the last 30 seconds. After a time out, we had CJ dribble down the clock to about 10 seconds and. as he drove to the paint, he passed the ball off to Kobe Hines in the corner. Kobe drove baseline and shot a five-foot floater over a much taller defender…………swish, game winner!!!!!!! The final score was 42-40.
This was the definition of an ugly win, but records are always thrown away in rivalry games and this game did not disappoint! We are now 3-2 in District and in contention to be one of the top four teams in our District. Hopefully this victory can springboard us into a string of District victories to improve our positioning, while gaining some much-needed confidence!
Watch HERE for the final crucial minute of overtime!
Next week is a big week for us. We play at Cy Creek on Wednesday and then play Northbrook on Saturday at home. The Northbrook game will be a fun one, as for the halftime activities, we will have a Spring Branch Unified basketball game to showcase area special-needs kids' basketball skills! If you have not been to one, please come out and see why the SHS boys love to watch them play!