Spirits honor city council, win opener
LANCASTER — City of Lancaster Vice Mayor Marvin Crist and councilmembers Darrell Dorris and Ken Mann did the ceremonial toss at halfcourt to start the game between Littlerock and Paraclete.
But it was the Spirits’ councilmembers who stole the show.
Led by Donovan Ware’s game-high 22 points and a stingy second-half defense, Paraclete opened its season in impressive fashion with a 64-49 victory over the Lobos, Tuesday night at Paraclete High School.
“We were kind of laid back defensively in the first half, but we got more aggressive in the second half,” Spirits head coach Newton Chelette said. “We got after it a little bit. But give Littlerock credit, they shot the ball really well.”
In fact, both teams shot the ball very well as Paraclete (1-0) drained 10 3-pointers, while the Lobos netted eight of their own.
The score was tied early on, 7-7, in the first quarter before the Spirits hit three consecutive 3-pointers by Mister Burnside, Devon Marshall and Ware, which capped a 9-0 run and gave the home team a 16-7 lead.
Littlerock (0-1) hung tough, however, and matched Paraclete’s energy. The Spirits built a 31-19 lead midway through
the second quarter, but five consecutive points by William Young trimmed the lead to 3326. Paraclete led by just seven points, 38-31, at halftime.
“We were letting them score off a lot of screens,” Chelette said. “We got a little bit lazy there on defense in the first half. We were a bit standoffish. In the second half, we played a lot smarter, tougher. We made better decisions.”
The Spirits’ defense allowed 31 points in the first half but just 18 points (nine in each quarter) in the second half. Paraclete made a concerted effort in stopping the Lobos’ best player Young, an assignment given to Burnside.
Fatigue and a lack of depth definitely played a big factor for Littlerock as its hot shooting cooled off. Young scored 13 of his team-high 21 points in the first half, but he finished with five 3-pointers.
“We knew coming into this game that they’re one of the best teams in the Valley, but we knew we could play with them,” Young said. “We played hard, but we’re not very deep. At times, we had a lot of holes in our defense. We played like freshmen.
“I thought we got a lot of solid looks. I thought how we played against their 1-3-1 defense — we know we will see that defense again — so we did a good job against it. We put up a good fight.”
A 3-pointer by Young cut the lead to 40-34 in the third quarter before Chelette called a timeout for his team to regroup.
It did.
The Spirits promptly went on a 9-0 run, seven of those points by Ware, to extend the lead to 49-34, keeping the Lobos at arm’s distance.
“We all played well, but at the same time we all struggled,” said Ware, who hit four 3-pointers on the night. “We were lazy on defense in the first half, but we tightened things up in the second half. I’m just happy we got the win.
“Now we just have to focus on the next game. I think we should have put more trust in our coach, because we got easy buckets when we listened. I saw things we need to work on like our energy. But I really do have high hopes for this team.”
Littlerock opened the fourth quarter with a 5-0 run as the Spirits led 53-45. But that’s as close as it would get. Titus Morris hit a 3-pointer at 4:22 remaining to put Paraclete up 58-45.
Burnside finished with 13 points and two 3-pointers. Marshall added nine points and D.J. Phillips had seven points, including two 3-pointers.
Omari Penn had eight points for the Lobos and teammates Mathew Monroy and Travis Moore each finished with seven.
The Spirits honored the Lancaster City Council prior to the game as an appreciation for its support of the Spirits’ $12.5 million athletic sports complex, which will include a new football stadium, baseball field and softball field.