Boys basketball: Defense, frequent fast breaks power Newman past Hall

STERLING – When Newman and Hall last met on Jan. 5 in Spring Valley, the game came down to a final shot in the fourth quarter.

Their second meeting on Friday night at Newman Gymnasium was a completely different story.

[ Photos: Newman vs Hall boys basketball Gallery Photos: Newman vs Hall boys basketball ]

The Comets (18-9, 5-3 TRAC East) raced to a nine-point lead over the Red Devils (11-12, 3-5) in the first quarter, expanded it to 30 points by halftime and coasted to a 60-44 win over their Three Rivers Conference East Division rival.

“We won last time at their place by one, so we knew had to come out fast and get defensive tips and not let them stay with us,” Newman senior forward Lucas Simpson said. “Because they’re a four-quarter team, they’re a decent team, and they can beat us – our whole conference can beat anybody – so it was a good job by us getting in the passing lanes, getting fast break points, and they just couldn’t keep up with us.”

Newman started the game on a 9-0 run, scoring the first six points on layups by Simpson. The 6-foot-3 senior forward got to the rim in the first 14 seconds, then went coast to coast twice for layups off an intercepted pass near midcourt and another steal a little behind midcourt for a 6-0 lead with 6:34 remaining.

Newman senior forward Isaiah Williams nailed a left-corner 3 barely two minutes later to stretch the nine-point margin.

Hall senior guard Gianni Guerrini sank a layup with 3:09 remaining to end the scoring drought, but the Comets kept their foot on the gas pedal, scoring seven of the next 12 points.

Hall drew within 13-7 after a left-wing 3 by senior guard Max Bryant and a layup by senior guard Payton Dye, but that’s as close as it would get.

A 3-pointer by sophomore guard Garret Matznick made it 16-7 Newman by the end of the first quarter.

“We were doing a really good job of keeping pressure up early, and as soon as we got up a good amount, we just kept adding points on and on until we got to 30,” Williams said. “Our effort last game [against Hall], we were kind of going through the motions at some points. I think we were up 20 at some point in that game, and we just kind of let them creep back in, and at the end they were within one point of us.”

The Comets opened the second quarter with a 21-0 run through the first 4:40. Newman sophomore guard Evan Bushman hit a right-corner 3 to start it off with 7:22 on the clock, then Simpson scored 13 of his game-high 26 points over the next 4:02 as the Comets took a commanding 37-7 lead. Nine of those 13 points were scored on the fast break. Simpson started three of those fast breaks with his own steals, and sophomore forward George Jungerman started another with a steal and assist to Simpson.

Bushman hit another 3-pointer with 15 seconds left to take a 41-11 lead at halftime.

“I feel like we knew that they could keep up with us, so we were like, ‘We can’t let them stay with us,’ so we sped up their game, and we had other people step up, too, instead of just me scoring all our points today,” Simpson said. “And getting a lot of those points from other teammates helped a lot, too.”

Simpson drilled a left-wing 3 early in the third quarter, then hit a layup for a 51-16 lead with 4:49 remaining. The Comets pulled their starters shortly after.

Senior forward Dax Snyder, sophomore forward Drake Cole, senior guard Sam Francque and junior guard Cody McBride each scored a basket for Newman in the second half.

Simpson finished with 26 points and eight steals; Bushman totaled eight points and five rebounds; Matznick scored seven points; and Williams added five points and five steals for the Comets.

Jack Jablonski, Braden Curran and Bryant led Hall with eight points each; Jablonski had six rebounds and Curran added three rebounds and three steals.

“The first time we played them, they beat us, literally, on a last-second shot, if you can believe that after watching that. We just didn’t have any fight in us,” Hall coach Mike Filippini said. “We have not done that the entire year. We were 11-11, we’ve got some pretty good wins. We’ve beaten Princeton, we’ve beaten Bureau Valley, beaten Mendota twice, almost beat Newman the first time. I don’t know what was wrong with us tonight, but right from the start we just weren’t ready. You have to give credit to Newman. They took us out of everything we wanted to do, and they played a lot better than we did, so they deserved to win the game.”