Sports
Alexander Falls in Physical Battle Against Warriors
By: Anthony Marino
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It’s only a foul if the referee calls it, and tonight they called a lot. With early fouling by Alexander, head coach Jim Kearns was forced to substitute bench players, disrupting the flow of his team’s offense.
“The foul trouble took us out of some of our momentum; we had some good momentum going into the first half. We have to get better at that,” said Kearns regarding the early foul trouble.
The Spartans kept it close for the majority of the game, but they just couldn’t muster up a run to break away from the Warren Warriors. Warren took advantage of these troubles as they ran away from Alexander in the fourth quarter, taking the win 59-46.
Warren is a quick, well-coached group of players that emphasized passing in last night’s game. They were able to control the flow and get the shot they were looking for. Despite the strong showing by the Warriors, Alexander countered with gritty defense and an offense that was able to answer the scoring of Warren.
Alexander went into halftime only down three. In their past few games they have been a very strong third quarter team, but tonight they were not able to come out of the half strong and take the lead.
Warren took a 41-34 lead at the end of the third and Alexander was not able to close the gap in the fourth quarter. Late in the fourth Alexander point guard J.K. Kearns was able to put in a pair of three-pointers, but was too little too late. Kearns finished with nine points and hauled in three rebounds.
As for the Warriors, the duo of Seth Dennis and Noah Nichols did most of the scoring. Dennis went 5-for-12 from field goal range and 1-for-3 from behind the arch. He would finish the game with a game high 18 points. Nichols was a point shy from matching Dennis – he would finish with 17 points.
Dylan Mecum led Alexander with 11 points. Caleb Terry put in 10, but had a quiet night. When Terry was fed the ball in the paint the Warriors doubled down on him making it hard for him to do much. Shutting Terry down took away a very important element of this Alexander offense, contributing to its short night.
Alexander will be on the road again as they look to bounce back against conference rival River Valley on Friday. This game is a must win for Alexander as they look to break the tie in the TVC-Ohio with Athens.