After falling to Bowling Green on Monday, Head Coach Melvin Brown and UHA were ready to get back on the court to take on Webster County Tuesday afternoon.
Of course, a return to the court also came with certain mandates from Coach Brown. He was adamant in the pre-game interview about three things. His team getting on the glass, playing better defense from their pressure to their on ball and halfcourt, and that Lemar Northington get going from the jump.
Northington definitely got going early, both in points and assists. He was creating drive opportunities for himself and others. Only problem was, the other two non-negotiables were not occurring.
Coach Brown was clear that this time their would be no waiting around or hesitation. If you were not going to rebound and play defense, you could just sit down.
It only took about two minutes or less of game time to see how serious he was.
Before we reached the six minute to go mark of the first quarter, Coach Brown did a full lineup change. He subbed out every single starter for a back-up and sat them down for an extended stretch. He sent Quinton Quarles back out there a little sooner than everyone else to help run the point. Quarles clearly go the memo and played much stronger defense and chased down loose balls. Everyone else followed suit.
By the time the other four starters returned it was a different team.
Gavin Grubbs was extremely physical in the halfcourt defense forcing multiple turnovers. Elijah Walden crashed the boards and got put backs and easy assists like it was his sole purpose in life. Of course Northington continued to chip in as well.
At the half, the Blazers led 25-20 and you felt good about how they would come back out.
Webster County gave it all they had, including starting the third quarter on an eight to nothing run, but then here came the Blazers with a fire underneath them. They were everywhere and hitting everything.
By the time we reached the first minute of the fourth quarter, UHA had gone on a 25-5 run in response to the Trojans run and never looked back.
When it was all said and done Webster County had gotten it within ten points but UHA led by twenty plus for a solid amount of the fourth quarter.
Now the Blazers await a matchup tomorrow. Stay tuned as we will announce it and the tip off time, but we will certainly be on the air fifteen minutes prior to the tip for another installment of UHA Boys Basketball.