McClellan earns victory for effort, tops Westwood
Little Rock McClellan Coach Chris Threatt wasn’t thrilled that his team turned over the ball 17 times and shot just 42 percent (26 of 61) from the floor during Saturday’s game against Memphis Westwood.
They more than made up for that with effort though, and that had Threatt smiling at the end of the game.
McClellan harassed Westwood into 29 turnovers and out-rounded their much larger counterparts 48-42 in rolling to a 72-43 victory in the Battle of the Border Showcase at North Little Rock’s Charging Wildcat Arena.
“That’s the one area that doesn’t require a lot of coaching,” Threatt said. “We’ve lost a couple of games this season where I thought we didn’t play hard at all. When you don’t play hard, you don’t deserve to win.
“We still made some of the same mistakes we’ve made earlier in the season, but we competed hard on both ends of the floor and it paid off [Saturday].”
McClellan (4-2) also got huge performances from junior forward Andre Jones and senior guard Keith Hayes in disposing of a Westwood team that featured three players 6-5 or taller. Jones scored a game-high 25 points and pulled down 14 rebounds while Hayes finished with 22 points, 4 assists and 3 steals. Peyton Molden added 7 points, 7 steals and 5 assists.
Senior guard Kalvin Rush scored nine points to lead Westwood (4-3), which hit only 19 of 71 shots (27 percent) for the game. Senior forwards Toriano Stokes and Jarvis West finished with eight points apiece. Westwood also didn’t do itself any favors from the free-throw line, connecting on 3 of 13 attempts.
The Lions hit six of their first seven shots to open a 19-6 lead late in the first quarter. The Longhorns, in turn, missed eight of their first 10 and turned over the ball nine times in that same span and found themselves in a hole they weren’t able to get out of.
“Getting off to a good start was key for us,” Threatt said. “We knew we had to run those guys and keep them off the boards. I thought both Karson Hayes and Jaylin Peterson set the tone for us with their effort because they were keeping guys six and eight inches taller than they were off the glass.”
“Once we were able to that, it allowed wing guys like Andre and Keith to get going.”
Westwood closed to within six early in the second quarter, but Jones, who had four dunks in the game, scored eight points during a 10-2 spurt, including a nifty reverse layup in traffic, to help McClellan grab a 39-23 lead at the half.
Keith Hayes had a hand in 11 of the Lions’ 12 third-quarter points to help extend McClellan’s lead to as many as 18, then ignited a 15-2 run at the start of the fourth with a pair of nifty assists to Jones to virtually put the game away.
“[Jones] is the best wing played that I’ve ever coached,” Threatt said. “Both he and Keith are All-State players, but the thing is to keep them from having so many highs and lows. Consistency is the key, and they both showed a lot of that in this one.”