Spain Park ends Thompson’s 10-game winning streak
Published 11:51 am Wednesday, December 11, 2019
By ALEC ETHEREDGE | Sports Editor
HOOVER – Despite having lost three of their past four games, the Spain Park Jaguars weren’t intimidated when the Thompson Warriors brought a 10-game winning streak to town on Tuesday, Dec. 10.
In what was a 29-29 game at the halftime break, the Jaguars were able to pick up their level of play in the third quarter, outscoring Thompson 21-9 behind 10 points from Cam Crawford and five total quarters.
That became part of a 34-17 second half for the Jags (7-5), who went on to pick up a 63-46 victory against the 10-2 Warriors.
Out of the gate, Spain Park jumped out to a quick 5-0 lead in the first two minutes of the game to put the road team in an early hole, but Thompson had an answer.
After struggling early, the Warriors got their first basket from Chaney Johnson three minutes into the first quarter, which sparked a 10-4 run to close out the opening quarter.
That gave Thompson momentum and a 10-9 lead heading to the second quarter, and the Warriors capitalized.
They came out and hit three straight 3-pointers, two in a row from Jack Dorolek and one from Johnson, to storm in front for a 10-point 19-9 advantage.
Following a quick timeout, however, Spain Park was able to steal the momentum back with a 10-0 run of its own. The Jags got two 3-pointers from Josh Harrington during the run, which helped even the score at 19-19.
From that point, the quarter became a back-and-forth affair that saw the two teams combined for 39 points en route to a 29-29 game heading to the halftime break.
During the break, however, the Jags were able to find something they liked offensively, which led to several made 3-pointers.
The Jags got everything to fall, including several shots off the hands of Crawford, which led to a 17-1 run at one point to put Spain Park on top 46-30.
That was the largest deficit of the game for the Warriors, but they were able to claw back to within 12 points heading to the final quarter thanks to a late and-1 from Johnson and a 3-pointer from Dorolek, which made it 50-38 heading to the fourth quarter.
Spain Park, however, squashed that momentum quickly with Robert Johnson nailing a 3-pointer early in the final period to put Spain Park back up by 15.
Thompson continued to battle back throughout the final quarter, and cut the deficit to 11 points shortly after falling behind by 15.
But Spain Park seemed to double just about every run Thompson put together, as the Jags answered with an 11-3 run to close out the game’s final score of 63-46.
The Jaguars were led by 16 points from Crawford, 14 of which were scored in the second half. Josh Harrington added 10 points, all of which came in the second quarter, while Colin Turner posted 10 as well. In all, Spain Park had nine players score in the win.
Thompson saw eight of its players score, but overall, Spain Park kept several talented playmakers from going off. Johnson led the way for the Warriors with 13 points, while Dorolek added nine.