Kittens rally to top CLA
Relying on a sticky zone defense and perseverance down the stretch, fourth-ranked Southern Lab jumped into a tie for the district lead with a 42-34 home triumph over top-ranked Christian Life in a battle of District 7-1A heavyweights Tuesday night.
The game was a reversal from the teams’ earlier clash this season, when CLA (19-5, 7-1) outbattled the Kittens, 81-78.
In this game, every shot was not only contested but nearly impossible to find, as Southern Lab (19-10, 7-1) suffocated the Crusaders —- especially in the second half.
“We wanted to squeeze the middle and not let them have anything easy in there,” Kittens coach Lonnie Machen said. “We wanted to close out well on defense and make them take contested shots, and then we did a good job rebounding in the second half, and that helped us take control.”
That defensive effort also forced a rash of turnovers, with CLA going scoreless in the initial 4½ minutes of the second half after taking an 18-13 halftime lead. The Crusaders missed three shots, but also coughed the ball up six times. Meanwhile, Southern Lab pecked away and forged a 20-20 tie when Melvin Lee converted two free throws. Then, baskets by Frank Bartley, R.J. Hertzog and Johnathan Stove sparked a final flurry that gave CLA a 28-22 edge after three quarters.
But the fourth quarter was all Southern Lab, when the Kittens outscored the Crusaders 20-6.
Marquise Ricard ignited a 12-0 Southern Lab flurry to open the quarter when he scored on a pair of fast-break layups set up by his own steals from the top of the zone.
Still down 28-26, the Kittens exploded for eight unanswered points in 2:03, with Lee hitting a follow shot and a 3-pointer from the right corner and Lance Bernard hitting a free throw and a driving layup.
Included in the surge was an intentional-foul call on Hertzog against Bernard that seemed to shift momentum to the Kittens.
“I thought my guy was going for the ball,” CLA coach Mark Cascio said. “It was a tough call. But that doesn’t take away from how Southern Lab played.
“They played a much different game defensively. They didn’t speed things up and we took bad shots against their zone.”
That was when the Crusaders could create shots. They only launched 15 in the second half and finished the night 13 of 36 (36.1 percent).
“We had to make some adjustments after that last game because we allowed them to score too easily,” Machen said. “We were much more effective with our zone and made them take shots from the outside and got a lot of stops that way.”
Still, the Crusaders crawled back within 36-34 with 58.1 seconds to go when Bartley knocked down a pair of foul shots — after he drew a flagrant foul — and Stove capped a 14-point night by knifing inside for a point-blank shot.
The rest of the Kittens’ offense came from the free-throw line where Flowers and Bernard combined to his six straight shots in the last 23.8 seconds. Lab made 14 of 18 free throws, helping offset a frosty 31 percent (13 of 42) shooting night.
“Those were winning shots when we had to have them,” Machen said. “This is a good win for us because Christian Life is a real quality team.”
Added Cascio: “Southern Lab made the plays down the stretch and we didn’t. They defended great all night long — both teams did, I thought — and their guys made shots at the end.”
Bernard led the Kittens with 12 points, seven in the final period. Lee and Flowers added nine points apiece and Lee spearheaded Southern Lab’s rebounding performance with 10.
Stove, Bartley (eight points) and Hertzog each snared six rebounds for the Crusaders.