Sports
Boys Basketball: Spartans upset Buckeyes
By: Seth Austin
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Two streaks ended in Buchtel Tuesday night when the Alexander Spartans ended their five-game winning streak when they beat the Nelsonville-York Buckeyes, who had a five-game winning streak of their own, 60 to 44.
Despite being undersized, the Spartans used a combination of speed and tough defense to fluster the Buckeyes offense. The Spartans, led Chris Wingett's staunch defense, recorded 13 steals.
Another big factor for Alexander's success was Jake Grey. Coming off an off night against Vinton County going 0-6 from deep, Grey dropped 20 points, including two clutch threes to kick off the fourth quarter.
After starting off the game allowing six consecutive points, Alexander went on a 10-2 run to end the quarter led by intense ball handling by freshman point guard Jordan Mosley who was able to work past the NY full-court press.
The teams traded points during the second quarter and Alexander took the lead into half, 21-19.
Wingett started to become a force on offense as a supreme distributor with six assists. The Spartans increased their lead to as much as six, but Nelsonville-York, paced by Austin North's 14 points on the night, made a run at the end of the quarter to cut the deficit to 2.
The fourth quarter belonged to Grey. He found his stroke from three early in the quarter to increase the lead to 8 and didn't stop there. Grey finished with 10 of his 20 points in the final period allowing the Spartans to coast to their third victory.
The story for Nelsonville-York was turnovers and lack of production from their leading scorers. The Buckeyes had 16 turnovers and Casey Cox and Daniel Kline only recorded 6 points combined.
Alexander (3-7) will look to keep their win streak alive with a road trip to Athens on Friday. The Buckeyes (7-4) are back in action on Friday as well with a matchup with the Wellston Rockets.