EDINBURGH
The Trinity Lutheran and Medora boys basketball teams opened the Edinburgh Holiday Classic on Tuesday.
After both teams lost their first-round games, the two squads squared off in the late game at Edinburgh.
Hosts top Hornets
Medora coach Mark Morin said a combination of cold shooting and turnovers hurt his team in its 61-22 loss to Edinburgh in the first round of the tourney.
“We weren’t able to hit shots,” Morin said. “I thought we had some decent looks; we just didn’t convert.”
The Hornets got off to a good start when JD Fish made his and Medora’s first shot of the game to put the Hornets on top 2-0.
Not much went right for the Hornets the remainder of the opening quarter as the Lancers went on a 10-0 run to lead 10-2 following Christian Cox’s third basket of the game at the 4:07 mark.
Gavin Henson made 1 of 2 free throws with 2:17 on the clock for a 10-2 score before the Lancers increased their lead to 18-3 at the end of the period, then opened the second quarter on a 10-0 run to lead 28-3 with 4:10 remaining until half.
Isaiah Myers hit a 3-pointer at 2:50 and followed with a layup one minute later to complete Medora’s scoring in the first half.
Medora shot 1-for-5 and committed seven turnovers in the first period, and followed that up with 2-for-5 shooting and six turnovers in the second period.
“If things don’t go our way the first two or three minutes of the game, then we usually have a rough night,” Morin said.
“If we can get a good start we seem to compete a little better so we’ve just got to work on coming out and being ready to play when the game starts.”
Edinburgh did not let up at the start of the third period by going on a 6-2 run to lead 44-10, with Fish scoring Medora’s basket during that streak.
Jayvin Spurgeon added another basket three minutes into the period, but the Lancers scored the final 12 points of the quarter to lead 56-12 at the end of third periods.
Myers topped the Hornets in scoring with 10 points, including two 3-pointers.
The Lancers (5-4) were led in scoring by Cox with 14 points, and Coltan Henderson scored 12.
The Lancers shot 21 for 45 from the floor, while the Hornets made 9 of 34 shots. Medora had 13 turnovers in the first half but did a better job of taking care of the ball in the second half by committing only five. Edinburgh had 10 turnovers.
Owen Sullivan and Skylar Jones led Medora in rebounds with four each.
Trinity falls to Tigers in opener
Trinity Lutheran boys basketball coach Brian Stuckwisch said his team suffered two dry spells in the first half that allowed Hagerstown to take control of the game in the first half and go on to a 70-48 win.
“We had a stretch there at the beginning of the game where we spotted them some points,” Stuckwisch said. “We weren’t ready to play.”
AJ Goecker scored for Trinity in the opening minute of the game to put the Cougars on top 2-0, but the Tigers came back with nine straight points, including 3-pointers by Cody Swimm and Trent Weiss to make it a 9-2 score at the 6:26-mark.
Five different Tigers scored in the opening period as Hagerstown held a 21-15 lead going into the second quarter.
A 3-point basket by Jacob Rowe left the Cougars trailing 28-22 with three minutes remaining until halftime, when the Cougars cooled off and the Tigers moved on top 40-25 at the half.
Stuckwisch said, “At the end of the second quarter there was about a four-minute stretch where we didn’t get good offensive movement, we didn’t get any ball reversals and we didn’t hit any shots right there. They got the lead. I think the game was the last four minutes of the second quarter. We played even with them in the second half. We had some good looks.
“A couple of our shooters weren’t hitting tonight. I think three days off we were little rusty.”
The Tigers outscored the Cougars 12-3 over the final 3:21 of the second period to lead 40-25 at the half. Both team scored 23 points in the second half.
The teams traded points in the early part of the third period with Trent Shoemaker scoring a basket and four free throws to make it a 44-30 game with just over six minutes left in the third period before Hagerstown went on a 10-2 run to increase its lead to 54-32, and the Tigers held a 58-42 lead going into the fourth period.
Jacob Rowe topped the Cougars in scoring with 14 points, while Shoemaker and Goecker added 11 each.
Josh Rowe was high rebounder for the Cougars with eight.
Stuckwisch said his team lost to a good ball club.
“They’re a good fundamental team all the way around, offense and defense,” Stuckwisch said, “They play real good man-to-man defense. They’ve got several guys. They can interchange eight people and they don’t lose a whole lot. Their bench is pretty strong.”
Jalen Oliver topped the Tigers with 23 points and 15 rebounds.
Stuckwisch said he was a handful for his team.
“He’s an all-round player. He moves well with the ball and they look for him, and the rest of them feed off of him. Whenever you try to double-team on him somebody is always open and he finds them.”
Cougars top Hornets
Trinity (3-6) scored on the opening possession and never trailed in a in 66-33 victory over Medora (0-10) in the late game of consolation play.
In the first four minutes the Cougars jumped to an 8-0 lead behind four points from Jacob Rowe.
Following a Hornets 3-pointer by Myers, the Cougars closed the first quarter with a 7-0 run to lead 15-3.
The offenses found some rhythm in the second quarter, as the teams traded baskets up to the 3:48 mark.
Jacob Rowe scored nine more points before the half to bolster the Cougars’ lead to 31-17 at the break.
Jacob Rowe had 14 points to lead all scorers.
In the third quarter, the Cougars outscored the Hornets 23-8.
Leading 43-25, Trinity went on a 11-0 run in the final three minutes of the third quarter to go up 54-25. In that span, AJ Goecker scored four points and Trent Shoemaker had three points.
Trinity outscored Medora 12-8 in the final eight minutes of play to secure the win.
Jacob Rowe led the Cougars with 22 points and Sullivan was the high-scorer for the Hornets with 10 points.
Medora will play Christel House Academy at 2 p.m. for seventh place and Trinity will play Jac-Cen-Del in the fifth place game today at 4 p.m.