Aldine – The opening of basketball season got off to an entertaining start with a five header at the M.O. Campbell Center.
In the first game, two home schools took the court. Recently new school RCHA (Redemption Christian Home School Association) came aboard a couple of months ago when HCYA’s head coach left with a few players to help start RCHA.
Needless to say, HCYA pulled out a 77-56 victory over its new counterpart. Justin Jackson and Wes Gallagher led HCYA with 36 and 17 points respectfully.
Jackson was named the top home school player in the nation, after accepting the Pete Maravich Trophy at the conclusion of his sophomore season. The award recognizes the nation’s top home school player as did Roy Williams, coach of the North Carolina Tarheels, offered Jackson a scholarship.
The Warriors’ held RCHA to ten first quarter points as it rolled to its first win of the season.
In game two, Kingwood edged Nimitz 51-50 in a defensive battle. The Mustangs got 22 points from Hunter Leahy and Quincy Madunezim tossed in 10 for the Cougars.
Westfield”s air tight man-to-man defense smothers the Woodlands.
Westfield’s four quarters of man-to-man, suffocating defense opened a tight first quarter lead which enabled it to grab a 34-22 halftime lead, on its way to a 58-44 victory.
“To beat the really good discipline teams, you got to be able to play man,” says Westfield coach. Since we lost to DeSoto, everything has been geared around playing man-to-man. We worked on strength, conditioning, lateral movement, and getting stronger in the weight room, to the fundamental man-to-man drills that you teach. Those all the things we’ve been doing for six months now. I’d like to hope I wasn’t surprised by what a lot of people saw. We’re a man-to-man team. We kind of got away from it last year. To hold the Woodlands to 44 points is good. They scored 90 on us last year.
The Woodlands led the game 4-0 before the Mustangs tied it on forward Wesley Iwundu’s short jumper in the lane. Westfield never trailed the rest of the game.
“Westfield’s really good. They were at the last year’s regional semifinals and got all there studs back. There a very good team. We obviously didn’t play very well. Defensively we were really poor and that’s on me. We just got to get better. We have a good team. Westfield guard you so tight, it’s hard to shoot.
Iwundu led the Mustangs with 19 points and Chad Owens scored 15.
“We wanted to come and make a statement but we came out slow. We picked it. We had to get our first game jitters out. At first, it kind of rattled them up at first. It got them out of there game. We wanted to speed the game up,” Westfield’s forward Iwundu said.
The Highlanders’ were paced by a strong shooting game from its two-guard Brian Baehl, who totaled 20 points and teammate Garrett Colonna followed with 12.
“Westfield’s really good. They were at the last year’s regional semifinals and got all there studs back. There a very good team. We obviously didn’t play very well. Defensively we were really poor and that’s on me. We just got to get better. We have a good team. Westfield guard you so tight, it’s hard to shoot. We’re disappointed on how we shot the ball from the free throw line. We’re going to be really good. But it’s just a matter of time. Once we figure some stuff out,” The Woodland’s coach said.
North Shore hung on for 67-53 win over the DeKaney Wildcats.
Many moments in the contest, the Mustangs seemed poised to run away with the game. But each run, the Wildcats answered with a basket to keep things from getting out of reach.
On offense, Johnathan Motley showed his all-around game, scoring a game high 28 points for the Mustangs. Aaron Smith added 16 and Brandon Etienne scored 14.
Motley connected from behind the arc, inside, finished with 10 boards and served as a presence on defense.
Despite Motley’s great game, it was the defense that surrendered a 6-0 start for North Shore.
It wasn’t enough to put the Wildcats away, as DeKaney would answer with key baskets, at crucial moments, when it needed it most. Dion Fisher and Bob Bing led the way with 15 points; Marquis Bell Joseph Kilgore scored 10.
However, down the stretch, DeKaney didn’t have enough to stay with the talented Mustang squad.
