The University boys are champions of the Pioneer Academic Athletic Conference for the fourth consecutive season thanks to a 54-43 win over Greenwood Christian Saturday afternoon at the U Center.
Seniors Camden Brown (19 points, five rebounds) and Matt Jones (14 points, four rebounds) led the Trailblazers to their 12th win of the season in 16 games. The win reversed a 57-51 loss to Greenwood Christian in the second game of the season.
“We are pretty excited with the win,” said University coach Brandon Lafferman. “We were confident coming in to the game. We’ve gotten a lot better since the season started. Defensively we were outstanding tonight – we hang our hat on our defense and it carried us tonight as we try to find our offensive rhythm after our quarantine layoff.”
“I am most proud of how guys embraced their roles today and players came off the bench and positively impacted the game. Khami Bracey, Seth Hogg and especially Kasey Ash-Simpson played well off the bench.”
Brown helped get the Trailblazers off to a fast start scoring 10 of the team’s first 12 points. A Jones three pointer with three seconds left gave University a 15-11 lead after one.
Greenwood Christian came back in the second quarter to take a 18-16 lead before Jones hit another three-pointer to give University a 19-18 lead with 6:14 left in the period. The teams went through a scoreless stretch before a Cougar free throw knotted the game at 19 with 3:30 left.
Ash-Simpson exploded for seven consecutive points in 50 seconds to give University a 26-19 lead and the Blazers led the rest of the game. Hogg stretched the lead to 29-19 with 1:42 left in the half with a three-pointer from the right corner, before the Cougars scored the last four points of the half to cut the lead to 29-23.
Jones put the lead back out to nine with another three-pointer, but Greenwood Christian battled back to cut the lead to 36-35 late in the period as University operated with their top two point guards, Ash-Simpson and Sabien Cain on the bench with four fouls. Bracey and Hogg helped steady the Blazers offense and Jones hit yet another three-pointer with 46 seconds left and Brown scored with three seconds left to put the lead back to 41-35 at the end of three.
Mitchell Martin made a three-pointer from the left corner one minute in to the fourth quarter off a pass from Brown. Greenwood Christian did not get closer than five the rest of the way as the Blazers held the Cougars to just eight fourth-quarter points. Ash-Simpson and Brown closed the game out at the foul line.
Ash-Simpson finished with nine points and Martin had seven.
Styles McCormick led Greenwood Christian with 19 points. The Cougars are 12-7.
University is next in action Tuesday night when it hosts Brebeuf Jesuit.
UNIVERSITY 54, GREENWOOD CHRISTIAN 43
University FG FT TP PF
Kasey Ash-Simpson 3-5 2-2 9 4
Nate Jeffrey 1-4 0-0 2 3
Kahmi Bracey 0-1 0-0 0 0
Sabien Cain 1-2 0-0 2 4
Matt Jones 4-11 0-0 12 1
Camden Brown 8-16 3-4 19 3
Seth Hogg 1-2 0-0 3 1
Mitchell Martin 3-6 0-5 7 4
Totals 21-47 5-11 54 20
Score by Quarters
GCA 11 12 12 8 – 43
University 15 14 12 13 – 54
University 3-point shooting (7-20) Jones 4-9, Martin 1-3, Hogg 1-2, Ash-Simpson 1-1, Brown 0-2, Jeffrey 0-1, Bracey 0-1, Cain 0-1.
University rebounds (25) Jeffrey 5, Cain 5, Brown 5, Jones 4, Martin 4, Ash-Simpson 1, Bracey 1.