Wash High gets Anderson his first win as coach
The third time was the charm for Wash High coach Travis Anderson.
After losing twice on the opening weekend at the Armstrong tournament, the Prexies got Anderson his first win as a high school basketball coach in his debut at Wash High’s historic gymnasium.
It was a grind-it-out type game, but the Prexies pulled out a 48-38 victory over Ellwood City in a nonsection game Thursday night.
“It’s a sigh of relief,” Anderson said. “I thought the first two games we had a chance to win, but we didn’t execute down the stretch. Tonight we did an excellent job down the stretch. It’s still a little rocky. We’re only maybe 10 practices in and we have some football guys that just came back. We’re trying to focused and learn a new system.”
The Wash High girls also won, 48-18 over Ellwood City in the first game.
Anderson took the Prexies job in the spring after coaching AAU basketball for several years. He had to sweat out a close fourth quarter.
Mykel Cuevas hit a three-pointer, the first and only one of the game for either team, with just over three minutes remaining to cut the lead to four. Tristan Reed responded with a layup and a steal that led to another layup to build the lead back to 44-36 and put an exclamation on the win with a dunk.
He finished with 14 points.
“I tell (Tristan) all the time that he’s super talented,” Anderson said. “The last game he had 31 (points) and 15 (rebounds). He’s just a tremendous athlete.”
The Prexies led 20-16 at halftime and built on that lead in the third quarter by holding Ellwood City to one field goal.
Wash High won the quarter 16-11 and would’ve had a more comfortable lead if it hadn’t put Ellwood City on the free throw line a bunch.
Kaleb Servick went five of eight from the line, Jackson Kerr was three for four and Mykel Cuevas went 1-for-2.
In general, the game was a foul fest with plenty of stoppages. A total of 36 fouls were called.
Vincent Johnson had a couple key baskets in the third including a coast-to-coast layup after a steal. He had 10 points off the bench.
Ellwood City, which is coached by Wash High grad Dan Bradley, got out to a 10-4 lead, mainly scoring on layups off fast breaks.
“We getting some deflections and steals early and we operate better when we’re in the transition game,” Bradley said. “They did a good job with their length covering the floor and that slowed us down in halfcourt sets.”
Anderson called a timeout early and with a booming voice told his players to “wake up”.
His players seemed to do so afterwards.
The Prexies settled in and outscored the Wolverines, 14-6 in the second quarter to take a 20-16 lead into halftime.
It was a first half of perfect symmetry for the Prexies with five players scoring four points each. Tristan Reed, Will Callan, Tayvonne France, Jamarie Walker and Johnson were the five players.
Callan hit a jumper to give Washington its first lead at 12-10 with 6:10 remaining in the second quarter.
The teams traded baskets to tie the score at 14-14, but Washington ended the half on 6-2 run, with all its points coming from the free throw line. Johnson made four free throws and France hit two.
Wash High, 48-18
If you can hold a team to six made baskets in a game you’re probably going to be successful as a basketball team.
That’s what the Wash High girls did to Ellwood City Thursday night.
The Prexies used a suffocating halfcourt trap to cause havoc for Ellwood City.
Their defense frustrated the Wolverines in a 48-14 victory in a nonsection game.
The Wolverines did not make a field goal until Teagan Patterson banked in a three-pointer with 3:38 remaining in the second quarter.
Patterson had Ellwood City’s lone points in the half, the three in the second and a free throw in the first quarter.
Part of the problem for the Wolverines was they didn’t get many shot attempts. They either turned the ball over with an errant pass or the Prexies stole it off them.
Washington (1-0) got off to a little bit of a slow start offensively, but slowly pulled away.
The Prexies had seven made baskets, all two-pointers, in the first half and took a 24-4 lead into the break. They went 8 for 18 at the free throw line.
Washington had a couple of fast break buckets and a few more on good passes on cuts to the basket for layups.
Faith Partozoti and Taylor Barnes had back-to-back makes on successful cuts to the hoop late in the second quarter.
Partozoti hit the game’s first three-pointer in the third and Olivia Woods had a couple of runners to continue to extend the lead.
The Prexies led 39-10 at the end of the third quarter.
Carah Kreitzer had all six of the Wolverines’ points in the third quarter all on inside baskets. She had two more field goals in the fourth and finished with 10 points.
Teyler Barnes had 12 points to lead the way for the Prexies, who have nine players on the roster. Eight of the nine players scored.