The University boys dropped their home opener Friday night, losing 57-51 to Greenwood Christian.
Class 2A No. 7 University trailed 50-41 early in the fourth quarter before mounting a comeback. Camden Brown scored to cut the lead to seven before Matt Jones drove to the basket and was fouled as he scored. The old-fashioned three-point play cut the lead to 50-46. After a Cougar basket, Mitchell Martin made a free throw and Brown made two foul shots to cut the lead to 52-49 with 3:14 remaining.
The game was scoreless until Martin made two more foul shots with 43 seconds left to pull the Blazers within one. After two Greenwood Christian foul shots, University turned the ball over on an off the ball offensive foul. The Cougars made three of four foul shots down the stretch for the final margin.
University held an early 5-1 lead on a Jones three pointer and a Nate Jeffrey basket before Greenwood Christian scored the last eight points of the quarter and led 14-8 at the end of the first.
The Blazers battled back to take a 28-27 halftime lead with Larry Pierce scoring nine points in the period despite battling foul trouble.
University held their last lead at 30-29 when Martin scored off a Pierce assist. The Blazers were down just 42-41 with two minutes left in the third period, but Greenwood Christian scored the last five points of the quarter and led 47-41.
Brown and Pierce led University with 14 points each while Martin had nine and Jones six. Freshman guard Sabien Cain had a team high seven rebounds and three points.
Coach Brandon Lafferman was disappointed in not picking up the win, but was pleased with his team’s performance. “I was proud of our guys who don’t have very much experience playing together. They competed and showed major growth from just one week ago. We hate dropping games, especially at home, but we did a lot of things well tonight and are excited to get back at it tomorrow night against Speedway.”
“Larry Pierce was great tonight and really carried us at times. Mitchell Martin played great in the second half and our freshman guard Sabien Cain was much improved from his first outing. Our chemistry improved tonight,” continued Lafferman.
Greenwood Christian was led by Styles McCorkle who had 32 points. “I was really impressed with Styles McCorkle tonight. He did not play in their first game. We knew he could play but he really showed a lot of growth in his game from a year ago. Greenwood Christian is a well-coached team and will be very tough all season,” concluded Lafferman.
University (1-1) is back in action Saturday night when they host Speedway at The U Center.
GREENWOOD CHRISTIAN 57, UNIVERSITY 51
University FG FT TP PF
Kasey Ash-Simpson 0-1 0-0 0 0
Nate Jeffrey 1-1 0-1 2 0
Kahmi Bracey 0-0 0-0 0 1
Zach Whitham 1-2 0-0 3 0
Sabien Cain 1-4 0-0 3 5
Matt Jones 2-5 1-1 6 5
Larry Pierce 6-9 1-4 14 3
Camden Brown 5-8 2-2 14 1
Mitchell Martin 3-9 3-4 9 4
Totals 19-39 7-12 51 19
Score by Quarters
GCA 14 13 20 10 – 57
University 8 20 13 10 – 51
University 3-point shooting (6-14) Brown 2-2, Jones 1-4, Cain 1-3, Pierce 1-3, Whitham 1-2.
University rebounds (21) Cain 7, Brown 4, Martin 4, Jones 3, Pierce 2, Bracey 1.