The Spartan Basketball team is playoff bound after defeating North on Friday, February 18th.
Photo by Mia Nogueira
TJ’s basketball team had two games last week, losing to Lincoln on Tuesday in a last minute rally, and defeating North handily on Friday with a final score of 68-45.
In the game against Lincoln, the Spartans started off on fire, leading the charge in scoring against the Lancers in the first and second quarters. At halftime, TJ went into the locker room leading the game with a close score of 34-33. When the teams re-entered the gym after the halftime break, it was obvious that something had changed in the Spartans’ game. The Spartans looked sluggish in the third quarter, scoring only eight points and giving up 23 to Lincoln’s offense. They also put the Lancers on the free throw line many times in the quarter, which placed several players in foul trouble. In the 4th quarter, the Spartans made a rally to bring themselves back into the game, but the deficit was simply too much to recover and the final score was 73-69 in favor of Lincoln.
The next game on Friday against North was a completely different story from the Lincoln loss. The Spartans led the scoring from start to finish and at multiple points in the game led the Vikings by double their points total. Regular season Spartan scoring leader Eric Andres continued to rack up points in this game with 16 and Ian Melnicoe returned to the floor with a vengeance scoring nine. At the end of the game, the Spartans remained on top with a final score of 68-45.
Up next for the Spartans is the first round of the 4A State Playoffs where they were labeled as the 13th seed in the division. The Spartans’ first game will be against 2oth seed Glenwood Springs High School on Friday, February 25th at Pueblo West High School at 4:00. “Now that the regular season is over, it is time to really turn up our game and show up to play. We have a good team this year, so hopefully we can continue the tradition of glory that previous teams have given TJ,” said Senior Captain Ian Melnicoe.
Tip off for this game will be at 4:00 pm so make sure to drive down to Massari Arena at Pueblo West and support your Spartan Hoop Squad.
