When the Walton boys defeated Wheeler earlier in the week, everybody wanted to claim those two schools have separated themselves from the rest of Region 5-AAAAA. Not so fast, the Lassiter Trojans are right there with Walton and Wheeler and they got a big 60-38 win over the Cherokee Warriors on Friday.
“We put four good quarters together,” head coach Jeremy Morris said. “We’re playing out best basketball at the right time.”
Lassiter started the game down as much as four, but with two minutes left in the first quarter, the Trojans relaxed and played their brand of basketball. And Morris did not have to say anything to get his team back on track.
“It’s like they woke up,” Morris said. “We missed some easy shots early. They took it upon themselves to get better. They kind of righted the ship.”
One reason Lassiter has been playing at a high level is the players have stepped up their game and have played hard the last two weeks. Niles Clark was one player to rise to the occasion, leading the team with 20 points.
But Morris is quick to note that other players have played well during this run.
“It’s almost like a different leader every night now,” Morris said. “The effort that there all playing with, it’s like there’s a different leader every night and that’s okay. We’ll take that.”
Other players that have performed well in the win against Cherokee were Deshawn Crawford who scored 13 points and Adam Dowell who scored nine points in the win.
As good as a win like the Trojans experienced on Friday and as glad as they are to be one of the top teams in the region with a 6-1 record, the real test comes next week as they face Wheeler on Monday and Walton on Friday.
“It’s going to take our best game to play with those guys,” Morris said. “We couldn’t ask to be playing a better time of the year.”
The Lassiter girls’ team did not have the same success as the boys, losing to Cherokee 49-35. One of the things that hurt the Trojans was turnovers as they only scored four points in the first quarter because they turned the ball over numerous times.
It carried over in the second half when the turned the ball over on three consecutive possessions as the start of the third quarter.
Leading the Lady Trojans were Maeve Vitale who scored 10 points while Murphy Davis added seven. Mackenzie Kayler also had a solid game for the Lady Trojans, scoring eight points in the loss. Their record drops to 1-16 and they remain winless in region play. They will look to earn their first region win on Monday when they face Wheeler.
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