Warrior Boys Shoot Lights Out In 61-39 Rout Of Colonels

Posted: January 17, 2015
By JERRY HOLSWORTH
Special to The Winchester Star

WINCHESTER — Sherando used a ball-hawking, high-pressure defense and incredible shooting to blow past James Wood in a 61-39 in a Northwestern District boys’ basketball game Friday night.

The Warriors were a torrid 9 of 11 in the opening quarter and never shot below 50 percent in any quarter Friday.

Sherando’s ability to shoot so well from the field was helped immensely by the Colonels’ inability to control the ball. Wood committed 22 turnovers for the night, and many resulted it easy layups in transition for the Warriors (11-2, 3-0 Northwestern District).

“We were getting the shots that we like to take, and they were dropping for us,” said Sherando coach Garland Williams. “I thought the team performed very well tonight. We had studied them and we knew that they had some young guys handling the basketball, and we wanted to put some pressure on them and see how well they handled it.”

It didn’t take long for Colonel miscues and Warrior shooting to have an effect. Sherando jumped ahead 5-0 in the first two minutes of play and never trailed in the game. Wood, on the other hand, committed seven turnovers in the first quarter alone and shot a dismal 2 for 12 from the field.

“This game was decided by turnovers in transition,” said Colonel coach Tim Wygant. “That was about it. We turned the ball over, and they were able to turn those into some easy transition baskets or force us to foul them.

“We’re not a very good team when we turn the ball over. Turnovers are by far the most important stat for us. If we turn the ball over 20 times in a game, we don’t have much of a chance.”

The result was a commanding 23-6 Warrior lead at the end of the first quarter.

“We play pretty good basketball when we execute offensively and defensively,” Wygant said. “We have a lot of individual skill that’s not translating to points because of the turnovers we make.”

Despite committing another seven turnovers in the second quarter, Wood (4-8, 0-4) was able to recover some of its lost momentum thanks to the shooting of sophomore Aiden Houser,

With Wood trailing 32-12 with just 1:46 left in the first half, Houser nailed back-to-back 3-pointers and senior Branson Ratlief scored on a layup as part of a 7-1 run to end the first half.

“Boy, the 20-point lead really dwindled to 12 fast,” said Williams about the end of the second quarter. “Sometimes all you need is the 3-point shot and you can lose your lead quick. We had a whole half to go and they seemed to have found their shooters. They did a good job in the second quarter, but I thought we came out in the third quarter and did a better job of containing them.”

Wood’s resurgence was short-lived as Sherando came out for the second half and shot nearly as well as it did in the first.

The Warriors were 7 of 11 from the field in the third quarter, and 4 of 5 from the line. The Colonels managed just two baskets in six attempts over the same period, and were outscored by Sherando 18-5 in the quarter.

Leading the way for the Warriors offensively was the senior trio of Jordan Henry, Trey Brisco, and Kyle Tusing. Brisco scored nine of his team-high 14 points in the opening quarter, including one of Sherando’s two 3-pointers for the night.

Tusing was effective in all four quarters, garnering 14 points inside the paint. Henry was the key to Sherando’s resurgence in the third period, scoring eight of his 13 points for the night during the quarter.

While the Warriors were getting points from their big three seniors, only Ratlief and Houser were able to effectively respond to the Sherando offense. Houser scored on three 3-pointers for the night, but was held scoreless in the first and fourth quarters.

Ratlief led the Colonels with 15 points, but was only able to generate four points in the second half of the loss.