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Spain Park head coach Chris Laatsch made his debut with the Jaguars on Tuesday, Nov. 6, and was able to pick up a win to start the 2018-19 season 1-0. (For the Reporter/Larry Dancy)

By ALEC ETHEREDGE | Sports Editor

A familiar face across Shelby County was on the bench of a different team on Tuesday, Nov. 3, as Chris Laatsch made his coaching debut with the Spain Park Jaguars on the road at Cornerstone Schools of Alabama, and a memorable night it was.

In a game where the Jags led or were tied with the Eagles at the end of every period, they seemed to have a slight upper hand, but could never separate themselves with those leads being no larger than two points.

With 38.3 seconds left to play that was still the case with Spain Park up 49-48 looking to pull off a season-opening win.

The Jaguars (1-0), however, were able to end the final 38 seconds the best they had of any period, with a 3-0 run to close out the game with a 52-48 victory and stave off the upset to make Laatsch’s debut a memorable nail-biter for a 1-0 start to the 2018-19 season.

The back-and-forth matchup started early on as both teams showed they were set to have balanced nights offensively in the opening period.

Spain Park got points from five different players to start the night, while Cornerstone had four different scorers in the first quarter.

Despite the Eagles hitting two 3-pointers in the period, the Jags were able to get out of the quarter with a 13-12 lead thanks in large part to Parker Boswell’s five points.

The Eagles were able to close that one-point gap in the second quarter to tie the halftime lead at 23-23. The difference came at the free throw line in the period with Cornerstone making one additional shot from the line as the Jags went 1-4 from the line.

Coming out of the locker room, however, Spain Park was able to make major adjustments, not just at the free throw line but across the entire floor.

A big reason for that turn around was Isaiah Walton’s free throw shooting, as he went 4-4 from the line to tally four points in the quarter. His accuracy as well as five points from Braden McNees, led to a 15-point third quarter, the Jags’ largest point total of the four quarters.

At the same time, Cornerstone was able to match with its best quarter of the game posting 13 points thanks to two 3-pointers, but the Eagles still went into the final quarter down 38-36.

While Cornerstone hit 3-4 free throws in the final period, the Jags got to the line more and went 6-10, including a 3-4 mark from Boswell, who had five points to close out the game.

His strong fourth quarter, along with five more points from Walton seemed to be the difference in the outcome, as the Jags picked up the 52-48 win.

In all, Spain Park got points from nine different players and were led by 14 points from Boswell. Walton was the second-leading scorer with 11 points, while Cam Crawford added seven points.

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