Stallions outmuscled by Tigers
Wendy Alexander/The Madera Tribune Madera South’s Hakeem Primes drives to the hoop to score two of his team-high 17 points in Friday’s 70-60 loss to the Edison Tigers.
The Madera South Stallions boys basketball team couldn’t keep the Edison-Fresno Tigers off the offensive boards and it cost them in a 70-60 County/Metro Athletic Conference loss.
Edison’s Teyjon Harrington led all scorers with 22 points with most of his points coming off the offensive glass. James Hannah scored 10 points, also from the offensive glass despite playing with foul trouble.
“You want me to go back and say what I always say,” head coach Jody Sharp said. “We don’t belong in this league. We get beat up. We don’t have that size and those kinds of athletes. That’s the reality of the whole thing. We can battle our butts off and my kids will give all they have, but when it comes down to it, we don’t have the size and physicality to maintain it for four quarters.” Hakeem Primes and Andre Johnson led the team with 17 points each. Junior Segura added 10 points. Johnson hit five of the team’s eight 3-pointers and Primes scored nine of his 17 points in the fourth quarter.
“When you live and die by the perimeter and don’t understand when you get into the bonus and take advantage of it, we don’t do a good job of it,” Sharp said. “We get into the double bonus and we keep doing the same thing. We need to change what we’re doing and take advantage of what’s been given to us. Our young kids don’t do that and keep doing what they’ve been doing. It doesn’t help us. When they don’t make those three’s, it hurts us.”
The Stallions got the Tigers into double-bonus in the fourth quarter, but went to the free throw line just twice to take advantage of it. The Stallions also went 12-of-24 from the free throw line.
“We missed too many free throws tonight,” Sharp said.
The Stallions also couldn’t close in on the Tigers in the fourth quarter. Madera South missed its final six shots and didn’t’ score in the final 3:39 of the game. After going 7-of-16 from 3-point range in the first half, the Stallions went 1-for-12 in the second half.
The Stallions kept pace with the Tigers in the first quarter. Although they took nine 3-pointers, the Stallions made three — Andre Johnson hit two and Segura hit one — to give the Stallions a 17-15 lead at the end of the first quarter. Segura’s 3-pointer gave the Stallions a five-point lead before the Tigers made two buckets.
Johnson opened the second quarter with a 3-pointer and Primes made a free throw. But, the Tigers scored nine of the next 10 points to take a 25-21 lead.
A Johnson 3-pointer cut the Tigers’ lead to one, but the Tigers answered with five straight points.
Segura hit a 3-pointer to cut the lead to three. After a Stallions’ turnover led to a layup, Primes made two free throws and Johnson hit hisfifth 3-pointer to tie the score at 32.
The Tigers made a 3-point play and Joel Galvan hit a buzzer-beating jumper for the Stallions to cut the Tigers’ lead to one at the half.
Segura made two free throws for the Stallions, but the Tigers scored seven straight points, all from Harrington, to open a 42-36 lead.
Johnson scored on a driving bucket and Ralph White made a fadeaway jumper to cut the lead to four. Two straight Edison drives to the hoop countered a White layuip for a 48-42 Edison lead. Edison made another layup to open an eight-point lead.
Madera South had an excellent chance to cut into the lead with 2:10 left in the third quarter when Elijah Ford was fouled. The Edison player disagreed with the call and had some choice words. He was hit with two technical fouls and was ejected from the game.
The Stallions received six free throws. Ford made one of two and Segura made two of four to cut Edison’s lead to five.
Edison came back to score three straight points before the Stallions got a Ford offensive putback and a Primes layup off a White assist to cut Edison’s lead to 53-49 entering the fourth quarter.
The Stallions got a free throw from Kingsley Thomas and a 3-poitner from Primes. However, Edison scored seven points to open a 60-53 lead.
Primes made a layup, drove for a layup and hit a pull-up 12-foot jumper to cut the Edison lead to 63-59 with about three minutes left in the game.
From there, the Tigers scored seven straight points while the Stallions missed four 3-pointers and turned the ball over twice in a 70-60 loss.
