Alexander falls short of first win over Wellston
By: Grace Shipman
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ALBANY, Ohio (WOUB) – Alexander Spartans (0-15) lost a back-and-forth game against the Wellston Golden Rockets (4-10) on Tuesday night. The Spartans hoped to add a win to their record, but the Golden Rockets didn’t make it easy.
Starting the first quarter with strong offensive movement, Alexander scored the game’s first points.
Throughout the first half, however, Wellston had solid defense and forced unwanted turnovers. Klaxton Hawk had many key rebounds on both offense and defense to stay in the game.
The Golden Rockets ended the first quarter with a 22-7 lead.
Going into the second quarter, the Spartans had to figure out a way to score contested buckets.
Shots started to fall for Alexander as Issac Waller and Stanley Viny slowly closed the gap between the teams.
The Spartans ended the half leading 33-29.
Coming out of the locker room both teams were ready to execute their game plan.
Coach Skinner had some words about Alexander’s overall performance.
“We had a lead tonight that we should have held onto but we turned the basketball over. Wellston mismatched us and isolated us in the low post. It took us three and a half quarters to get backside help”
The third quarter had some back-and-forth runs of breakaway layups and fouls from both teams.
The Spartans had plenty of free throw attempts to convert for points, but they came up short shooting 11 for 16 at the line.
Alexander’s defense lacked in the paint with backdoor cuts leaking through for easy layups for Wellston. The third quarter ended with Wellston leading 44-47.
With both teams hungry for a win, the Spartans needed to find a leader on the court to orchestrate the offense.
Golden Rocket’s Will Briggs was a huge asset for Wellston under the basket, grabbing plenty of rebounds to give his team second chance opportunities.
With two minutes left, Alexander was down by one point, but Ryan Long had a quick steal which would seal the game for the Spartans.
The Golden Rockets would take it all winning the game 57-59.
On Friday Alexander will travel to River Valley at 7:30 pm and Wellston will travel to face the Miller Falcons Friday at 7:00 pm.