Tuesday 1/28 SHS vs. Cy Falls

It was a very exciting game against District-leading Cy Falls. In the first quarter we started fast, which we needed playing against this caliber of opponent. Falls led 13-10, but they knew they were in for a battle. For the quarter, we were led in scoring by Joaquin Andrews with five points, JD Cheeves scored four, and CJ Williams had a free throw. In the second quarter, Stratford played extremely well and really turned up the defensive intensity. They outscored us 12-6 in the quarter to take a 25-16 lead at halftime. In the quarter, CJ had four points and JD had two.

In the third quarter, we turned up our defensive intensity and battled back into the game. We held them to six points in the quarter by switching to a zone defense. The zone really bothered them! In the quarter, we were led by Trent Burke with five points and the trio of CJ, JD, and Joaquin scoring two points apiece. By the end of the quarter, we had cut their lead from nine to four!

Cy Falls started the quarter fast with some tough defense, creating several turnovers, which led to easy baskets for them. But we were not to be deterred! We kept battling and slowly but surely got back into the game and gave ourselves a chance to win. In the last quarter, Elliot Harlan scored all nine points on made threes, the last of which was with under 30 seconds to play. We were able to claw back because Falls did not shoot their free throws well and did not make any in the quarter. We fouled them with 10 seconds to play, and they missed both free throws, which allowed us to advance the ball to half court and call a timeout. We drew up a play and got Joaquin the ball at the top of the key, but they fouled him before he could shoot. But we were not in the bonus, so we had to take the ball out again in the same spot. Unfortunately, we used all our timeouts and had to run the same play again. They defended the play much better this time and the referee called a five-second call on us (could have been a bit quick, but I digress!) We tried to get a steal but could not get it done. Game over. We lost 42-45.

In the quarter Elliot scored nine points, CJ scored four, and Trent scored two. For the game, CJ led us in scoring with 11 points, Elliot had nine, JD scored eight, and Joaquin and Trent both scored seven.

Friday 1/31 SHS at Cy Ridge

It was an excellent game for the Spartans! We thoroughly dominated them at their gym with a final score of 61-29. We outscored them all four quarters, culminating with only allowing them to score two points in the fourth quarter. CJ Williams led us in scoring with his superior one-on-one dribble moves and awesome shot-making. Trent Burke played a very sound game contributing 10 points on a good mix of three pointers and open jump shots. Both CJ and Trent allowed us to start the game fast, scoring 14 of our 16 points in that first quarter. Kobe Hines was a spark plug throughout the game with 11 key points on fast-break rim attacks and his usual half-court penetration and high-wire layup finishes.

The best night was probably had by Joaquin Andrews. He had no points in the first half but was unstoppable rebounding and assisting his teammates. He turned his shooting around in the second half, while continuing his rebounds and assists, and by the end of the game, he had earned the first triple-double of his career with 12 points, 12 rebounds, and 10 assists. Just a very good all-around game for Joaquin. JD Cheeves only had two points but contributed to this victory in so many ways with his hustle, steals, and rebounds! Elliot Harlan continued his steady play with a three-pointer and a layup to end up with five points. Kenneth Owen (KMO) provided excellent minutes in the post for us, playing his usual strong defense and rebounding while displaying some strong post moves to contribute four points overall. We were able to get playing time to Cameron Cocheu, Joe Selesky, Logan Hatcher, and Andrew Marks toward the end of the game. Cameron worked the boards effectively, was able get multiple rebounds, and had a put-back for his two points.

Overall it was a great win, and we maintain our fourth-place position for playoff seeding. We are one game behind third place Cy Fair, so winning is very important for us as we have three games to go. Next Tuesday we play our rival Memorial at the DCC. We need everyone to come out and support our boys. The award-winning Stratford Spartanaires will be performing at halftime, so have all the aspiring future Spartanaires come out to see their idols up close and personal! Then we host District-leading Cy Creek on Friday, and after that, we end our regular season at Northbrook.