By Shannon Fagan, WEIS Sports Director
SAND ROCK – If Tuesday night’s Sand Rock boys basketball season opener against visiting DAR is any indication of what to expect from the Wildcats, then their fans are in for quite an entertaining season.
The Wildcats built as much as an 18-point advantage in the first half and held a 14-point bulge in the third quarter, but the Patriots battled back to make it a two-point game on a 3-pointer by Zachary Ayers with 1:22 remaining in the game.
But each time DAR appeared to have shifted the momentum, the Wildcats made the plays they needed to make, particularly down the stretch, to earn a 95-90 victory.
Senior point guard Jacob StClair netted a game-high 36 points, including four 3-pointers. Ben Dale delivered 18 points, including nine in the fourth quarter. Kaden Justice rang for 16 points, with 12 of those in the fourth quarter. Post players Bradley Jackson and Jake Middlebrooks finished with 10 and seven points respectively.
“I was real pleased with our effort. I thought we played hard,” Sand Rock coach John Blackwell said. “We didn’t always play smart, but we played hard. We did the things we needed to do to win.”
“We’ve been talking about energy the past couple of weeks at the start practice, and we really came out and showed that energy,” StClair said. “It was a team effort. When I was getting double-teamed, we had people step up and score.
“We had great effort. We’ve just got to keep that up. DAR is a really good team, so that’s a big win for us.”
Sand Rock (1-0) held a 20-17 advantage after a quarter and built a 53-42 edge at halftime. That lead swelled to 66-54 with 1:23 to go in the third quarter on a basket by Dale, but then Patriots (0-1) began chipping away.
Ayers scored 12 of his 15 points in the fourth quarter, including three 3-pointers in the game’s final 1:30. But after each one he hit, Sand Rock countered with a basket at the other end to curtail the Patriots’ comeback attempt.
“They created a mismatch on us (with Ayers), but on the flip side, I didn’t want to take Bradley out because Bradley is really good against the press break. He does a lot of things for us and helps us out a whole lot,” Blackwell said. “They did go small. They went five guards and Bradley was having to guard 30 (Ayers). He asked me ‘What can I do?’ I said ‘Try not to let him hit a three.’ Bradley stepped out, but he (Ayers) just stepped further back and shot a couple of them from NBA range, but we hit free throws and didn’t turn the ball over at the end.”
As Blackwell said, the Wildcats were efficient from the free-throw line. As a team, they hit 18-of-21 shots from the charity stripe. StClair was 6-of-7 from the line. Jackson and Justice were both 4-of-4.
“Hitting 18-of-21 is pretty good,” Blackwell said. “I know both of our post players, Bradley Jackson and Jake Middlebrooks, they were 7-of-8 from the free-throw line. That’s one thing we talked about last year. We talked over the summer there were teams who would foul certain people on our team. Our post was a position teams fouled last year and we didn’t hit free throws. It cost us some games, but these guys have put the time in. They hit the gym. They’ve worked at it, and it paid off tonight.”
AJ McCamey led the Patriots with 28 points. Kaleb Allen added 12 points.
“For the first game of the year, I’m happy,” Blackwell said. “I’m happy we scored 95, I’m not happy we gave up 90 the first game of the year, but DAR is a really good team. They shoot the ball well.
“I think we played like we’ve been practicing, with energy and some fire in them. We just need to do that about 29 more times this season.”
