Sports

Alexander Cruise To Easy Win Over Huntington


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For the second time in as many games, the Alexander Spartans stormed to an early lead, controlled the tempo and cruised to another easy win.

In their first home game of the season, Alexander defeated the Huntington Hustling Huntsmen 54-30, and the final score belied how close the game actually was. 

“We don’t have many home games to start the season,” coach Jim Kearns said. “So getting out here in front of the home crowd and play well the first half was good.”

The Spartans started out the game on a 12-0 run, as the Huntsmen didn't score until there was less than three minutes left in the opening quarter.  The Spartan defense played a three-quarters court press and forced five turnovers on Huntington’s first eight possessions. 

After Huntington got their first bucket, a Mason Chapman 4-point play and Jordan Moseley 3-pointer pushed the lead to 19-3 and brought the Spartan crowd to a fever pitch.  Chapman finished the game with 12 points, all of which came in the first quarter.  He also added 4 rebounds and four assists.

At the end of the first quarter, Alexander led 24-5 and the Spartan lead continued to grow until halftime.  At halftime, the lead was pushed to 27, with Alexander up 36-9.  The largest lead of the game was 29, with Alexander had twice in the fourth. 

“The whole team is sharing the ball and getting good looks, hitting the boards hard and what happens, happens,” Richardson said.  “It puts a damper on the other team to come out and hit it hard and get rolling.”

Junior forward Jordan Moseley, who had 21 points in the Spartan’s first win over Marietta, turned in another strong game with 14 points and four assists.  Seth Richardson also had his way the whole game, both inside and out.  The junior finished with a double-double of 12 points and 10 rebounds. 

In the second half, the Huntsmen played much more competitively and even outscored Alexander 21-18.

“I didn’t like anything about the second half,” Kearns said.  Some of that, however, can be chalked up to the inexperience on the Spartans roster though.

“It happens, these are young kids and you get in a game like that and you see that outcome a lot.”

The Huntsmen never let up even as they fell behind by dozens, diving for loose balls as ratcheting up their defensive pressure.  But in the end, the hole .

“Obviously we’ve got to finish a little better in the second half but coming out with energy is critical to winning basketball games,” Richardson said.

As far as the Spartans go, the team is now 2-0 with back-to-back wins of more than 15 points.

“We call it 1-0,” Richardson said.  “We went 1-0 twice and it’s huge. We don’t really pay attention to last game and want to go 1-0 next Friday.”

The Spartans host the Wellston Golden Rockets on Friday, Dec. 12 in Albany.