LEXINGTON – Twelve days of Christmas hadn\u2019t yielded any gifts in the win column for Great Crossing boys\u2019 basketball, so a change or two in the starting lineup was overdue Sunday afternoon.<\/p>\n
One of those hunches paid \u2013 a junior just off the injured list who had played roughly two varsity minutes all season \u2013 didn\u2019t pay immediate dividends in the box score.<\/p>\n
Until you looked at the other half, that is. In 17 minutes of action, Noade Day anchored an all-day shutout of West Jessamine star Gavin Murphy, signed with Western Kentucky University, and set the foundation for a 70-46 win at Bueter Gym.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe planned to make some changes in the lineup. Different energy,\u201d GC coach Steve Page said. \u201cI knew 2 (Murphy) was kind of the key to their team, and Noade is probably our best on-ball defender.\u201d<\/p>\n
West Jessamine\u2019s two leading scorers on the season, Murphy and 6-foot-10 center Luk Tut, were a combined 0-for-8 from the field.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Tut, silenced by foul trouble and the Warhawks\u2019 Brady Orem, scored the duo\u2019s only point on a second-half free throw.<\/p>\n
Day and sophomore Colt Delimpo both made spot starts one day after a loss to Caverna dropped Great Crossing (4-6) into the consolation bracket of the White Greer Maggard Holiday Classic at Lexington Classic.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter I went home (Saturday) night and spent my evening re-watching how we played, I kind of had a heart-to-heart with the kids in the locker room before the game,\u201d Page said. \u201cI told them I\u2019ve been allowing kids to do stuff that\u2019s not our standard.\u201d<\/p>\n
Orem nearly hit his season averages on the nose with 22 points and nine rebounds.<\/p>\n
Others responded with needed spikes in performance. Ozzy Ismail played arguably his best game of the early season with 16 points and six rebounds. Graham Swartz magnified his 10 points with four rebounds and four steals.<\/p>\n
Six different Warhawks connected from 3-point range, with two bombs each from Orem and Delimpo.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Great Crossing never trailed while ending a four-game losing streak, its longest since January 2021.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe kids needed it. They needed a victory,\u201d Page said. \u201cWe know we have the opportunity to be a good team. We just have to do the little things that have been turning into big things (against) us.\u201d<\/p>\n
JT Messick led West Jessamine (6-3) with 17 points on 7-for-8 shooting.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In addition to Murphy and Tut, the Hawks held the other two double-digit scorers in the Colts\u2019 lineup, Kaden Floyd (nine points, seven rebounds, four assists) and Sawyer Thornton (seven points on 3-for-10 accuracy), below their norms.<\/p>\n
Day\u2019s contribution to the smothering effort far exceeded his one basket, four rebounds and single steal.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe just came back, got cleared before Cathedral (Tuesday),\u201d Page said. \u201cWe thought we\u2019d give him an opportunity. Obviously the (Murphy) kid\u2019s committed to Western, and he held him to zero points.\u201d<\/p>\n
GC got rolling early on threes by Delimpo and Ismail.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Thornton scored all seven of his points in the first period to keep West Jessamine afloat, but put-backs late in the period by Ismail and Orem provided the Hawks a 16-9 advantage.<\/p>\n
Those baskets started a streak of a baker\u2019s dozen that carried into the second stanza. Orem punctuated the run with a 3-pointer after Delimpo hit the deck for a loose ball and found Travanti Cooper II as middle man.<\/p>\n
Another corner three by Delimpo and a baseline drive\/wraparound lay-up from Ismail crested the first-half lead at 30-13 before Messick, Floyd and Jack Nieves led the Colts\u2019 comeback to 33-27 at the half.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was disappointed to end the first half 14-3 after being up 30-13, but I told them we were back to making losing plays,\u201d Page said. \u201cWe did that at the end of the second quarter when we took a couple of quick shots.\u201d<\/p>\n
West Jessamine also delivered the first punch after intermission when Messick scored via the offensive glass. Orem\u2019s 3-pointer, then a blocked shot and run-out by Swartz, put the Warhawks back in gear.<\/p>\n
It was still a two-possession game when Floyd grabbed an offensive rebound and hit a jumper to make it 44-39 with three minutes left in the third. Consecutive threes by Cooper and Swartz lit the fuse on GC\u2019s getaway.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe got it slowed back down, ran some motion and kind of ran the clock until we got what we wanted late in the game,\u201d Page said. \u201cBut it was all about our defense.\u201d<\/p>\n
Great Crossing turned West Jessamine\u2019s 14 turnovers into 22 points while committing only five miscues of its own.<\/p>\n
It was the signature team win so far. Seven players played at least 10 minutes, and eight different Warhawks scored, including late-game subs Colton Pensinger and Stan Miller.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just need to be us. Take good shots, play hard, play for each other, and good things will happen,\u201d Page said. \u201cIt\u2019s only one game, so we can\u2019t assume we turned the corner yet. (Monday) will be another big game for us to really turn the corner, but at the same time, we\u2019re excited about today.\u201d<\/p>\n
Great Crossing takes on Marshall County in its farewell to the tournament at 1:30 p.m.<\/p>\n
The Hawks then enjoy eight days off before returning to 41st District play at Franklin County on Tuesday, Jan. 6.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LEXINGTON – Twelve days of Christmas hadn\u2019t yielded any gifts in the win column for Great Crossing boys\u2019…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":377601,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[634,64,63,2359,726,3017,85,9134],"class_list":["post-377600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-american-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-ball-games","tag-basketball","tag-men","tag-sports","tag-team-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=377600"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377600\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/377601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=377600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=377600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=377600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}