Vikings double-up Cleveland|[1/29/06]
Published 12:00 am Monday, January 30, 2006
Warren Central coach Jesse Johnson figured Cleveland had to run out of gas sometime in the fourth quarter.
The Wildcats did and the Vikings (13-7) took advantage, going on a decisive 16-2 run to close out the Wildcats 75-52 in the final game of Saturday’s Red Carpet Classic.
The Vikings’ win made it a clean six-game sweep for the locals. The Lady Vikes easily handled the Cleveland girls 64-34.
The visiting Wildcats (6-19) gave the Vikings a scare with torrid shooting in the final three minutes of the third quarter. Cleveland hit five 3-pointers capped by Willie Rice’s trey right before the horn, making it a two-point game at 46-44.
Cleveland made one more 3-pointer, by Justin Washington, to stay within 50-47 with 6 minutes, 45 seconds left. Then the Vikings got their running game in order over the next five minutes.
Driving baskets by Shaan Walker and Jula Pugh doubled a four-point lead to eight at 57-49. Mario Luckett then scored eight of his team-high 17 points to help turn the game into a rout at 69-51 with 1:40 to play.
“I thought they’d run out of gas in the fourth quarter and they did,” Johnson said. “It’s hard to keep up that shooting and they only had eight guys to begin with. We kept running and ran the game out.”
Johnson, though, was unhappy with the overall effort, considering the Vikings have a critical game Tuesday night at Madison Central.
“It wasn’t that big of a help to us because we didn’t execute properly. We’ve got to execute better and that starts by making layups,” he said.
Cleveland coach Karshae Peterson was glad to see his young team make a game of it for awhile.
“Henry (Spearman) got in a zone with his shooting. But then we couldn’t put it back together in the fourth quarter,” Peterson said.
Spearman made three treys in the third quarter to account for half of his game-high 18 points. Spearman’s other trey in the game, to close the first quarter, tied the game at 12-all.
WC took control in the second with Chris Hood scoring six points and Andy Anderton adding five to put the Vikings up 30-25.
Walker ended with 13 points for the Vikings and Pugh had 10. Anderton chipped in nine, while Andre Thomas and Hood had eight each.
(G) WC 64, Cleveland 34.
Cleveland (8-16) scored the game’s first two points and then it was all Warren Central after that.
The Lady Vikes (18-6) made 11 of 16 shots in the first quarter to fuel a 23-3 run. It was 38-15 at the half and 60-21 after three quarters.
WC coach Donny Fuller emptied his bench in the fourth, playing several ninth-graders.
“We got to play everyone, including three ninth-graders who we brought up this week and all three of them got to play in the last two nights,” Fuller said.
Sha’Kayla Caples spread out her 16 points through the first three quarters. Brittany Willis added nine while Kaci Harris had eight and three others had seven each.
Kolett Clark led Cleveland with eight.