Stuart overpowers Lawrenceville for ninth win
LAWRENCEVILLE » Jalynn Spaulding believes that the grueling schedule head coach Justin Leith set for Stuart Country Day School’s varsity girls basketball team this winter is making them stronger.
Few would debate that after the Tartans won their ninth game by defeating the Lawrenceville School, 68-50, Thursday at Lavino Fieldhouse.
The win was Stuart’s second in a row since dropping consecutive games to parochial powers Trenton Catholic Academy and St. Rose. It also stopped a four-game winning streak the Big Red had put together despite dealing with injury issues.
“I like how tough our schedule is,” Spaulding said. “It’s better for us because it makes us push and play hard every game, for the whole game. And it shows us we cannot take plays off.”
The Tartans (9-4) even saw that with Lawrenceville (6-5), which after falling behind, 19-7, after one quarter, and, 34-17, at the half, closed to within 13 points of Stuart, 54-41, two minutes into the fourth quarter.
No worries. Leith’s team got its fastbreak going again, which led to Spaulding scoring four more baskets to put the game away before she left the floor with 2:37 left.
“This wasn’t an easy game either. They played hard,” Spaulding said of the Big Red.
Spaulding had plenty of help as freshman guard Nia Melvin backed her with 18 points, while junior forward Bey-Shana Clark scored eight points and sophomore guard Jasmine Hansford added seven points.
The Tartans needed to spread the ball around because L’ville was getting its own balanced effort from postgraduate guard Taylor Thompson (15 points), senior forward Julia Baginski (11 points) and sophomore forward Jordyn Ford (11 points).
“When we’re on, we’re on,” said Thompson, a Greenville, S.C. native, who scored 14 of her points in the second half. “We’d been doing awesome of late, but we’re dropping like flies. Originally, we were a team of 10 players. Now we’re down to seven.”
After losing the services of sophomore forward Victoria Dugan following a firsthalf collision, the Big Red fought harder in the second half to tighten the score. But with Melvin (12 points in the third quarter) and Spaulding leading the way for Stuart, the schedule-toughened visitors had too many weapons.
“Even though we’re trying to work through injuries, we’ve been playing well,” Lawrenceville head coach Antoine Hart said. ““We’ll keep fighting and hope everyone’s healthy by the end of the season.”
Spaulding 10-2-22, Michaels 0-0-0, BClark 3-2-8, Hansford 3-0-7, AJames 2-0-5, Morales 1-0-2, Lagay 1-0-2, Melvin 6-2-18, Martin 0-0-0, JLewis 2-0-4.
28-6-68.
Totals —
Thompson 6-3-15, Baginski 5-1-11, Bebel 2-0-6, JFord 5-1-11, Dugan 1-0-2, Safir 1-1-3, Molgat 1-0-2, Gillen 0-0-0.
21-6-50.
Totals — Stuart (9-4) L’ville (6-5) 3-point goals — 19 7 15 10 20 17 14 — 16 — 68 50
Melvin 4, Hanford, AJames (SCD), Bebel 2 (L).