Boys' Hoop Squad Loses Back to Back Home Games

The Boys went into Pack the House Night against George and was handed a loss, then lost against Kennedy short-handed.

Photo by Ed Gloor

On Friday January 20th, the Spartan boys lost to George Washington by a score of 59-45 and didn’t have guard Jordan Roland playing.

“Jordan was out with an injury,” said Head Coach Grant Laman. “GW noticed that and quickly took away the outside shot.” Jordan isn’t only the highest scorer on the team averaging 11.5 points a game, but he also has made the second highest amount of three-pointers on the team. Jordan was sorely missed as the offense had its worse outing of the season with a season-low in points. “They collapsed in on (forward Eric Andres) and didn’t let him take over the game. We shouldn’t let this become an excuse though, we had to adapt,” said Laman.

The sequence of events that happened at the end of the game was also a big reason for TJ’s deficit. As the a Patriots player tried to shoot a three-point attempt, he was fouled by a Spartan. This gave George three straight free throws, and Laman called a dead ball timeout. Coming out of the time out, center Nate Brewer said some words to the ref and was handed a technical foul. This was Brewer’s fifth foul and he fouled out of the game, and as he went to the bench he inadvertently vented his anger by slapping a chair. This was another technical foul, but since Brewer fouled out it was handed to Laman. “They got seven straight free throws, made six, and kept the ball. They also scored on the play giving them nine straight points without touching the ball. That was tough on us,” said Laman.

TJ had the weekend off and played Kennedy on Tuesday, January 24, and played a sloppy game to end up losing 68-59 and had multiple players inactive.

“The inactives violated some team rules and didn’t play,” said Laman. “We had some new combinations on the floor and they didn’t have a lot of playing time with each other. Again, we have to adapt to the situation and still win.” TJ played good defense to stay in the game, and was even up by one point very early in the fourth quarter, before Kennedy guard Jordan Hunter took the game over. TJ was forced into fouling at the end of the game, and Kennedy was able to pull away.

The Spartans now sit at 6-11 and needs some wins to guarantee a playoff spot. “In order to get in we’ll need three or four more wins at a minimum with six games left. If we can do that, our strength of schedule should be able to get us into the playoffs. But, then we get in and play a top seed,” said Laman.

TJ next plays East on Thursday, January 26th at East at 5:30 p.m.