HPCA beats Westchester on Senior Night
Michael Lindsay | Enterprise Sports Writer Feb 7, 2023 Updated 6 hrs ago
HIGH POINT – Westchester Country Day was playing well and feeling good early. But High Point Christian put a stop to that.
The Cougars scored the final 10 points of the second quarter to build a lead into halftime, then raced away in the second half to beat the crosstown rival Wildcats 63-34 in PTAC boys basketball Tuesday night on Senior Night at HPCA.
In the girls game, HPCA clamped down defensively, pulled away with solid stretches of offense and cruised to a 51-8 victory.
“I thought our energy improved really from the guys on the court and the guys on the bench,” Cougars boys coach Joseph Cooper said. “It’s a great night, being Senior Night, and I think it just took us a little bit to get going.”
Isaiah Sanders scored 16 points – including six during the pivotal second-quarter run – to lead HPCA (16-13 overall, 5-4 conference), in fourth place in an extremely competitive conference. Amori McLeod added nine points, while Toot Clay and Adam Grier each followed with seven points.
“I thought we underestimated them, that we were going to run over them,” Sanders said. “But Coach told us we were going to have to play. Once we put all our players back in, we just started playing and went from there.
“I felt like we had to play defense – we weren’t playing any defense. Me, personally, I had to start playing defense. Once we got steals and layups, the game started getting hectic and that’s layup central.”
Westchester twice led by a point midway through the second – on a transition dunk by Jalen Umstead and a long 3-pointer by MJ Edwards. But the Cougars quickly regained the lead on a pair of free throws by Grier – sparking a 10-point run over the final three minutes in which HPCA forced turnovers and ran in transition.
HPCA led 27-18 into halftime and quickly pulled away in the second half. The Cougars, who outshot the Wildcats by a 46% to 39% advantage from the field for the game, pushed their lead to 19 to end the third and got it to 29 in the final minute on a 3-pointer by Darius Kane – a senior who’s missed the entire season due to injury.
“It was amazing seeing him play because he hasn’t played in months,” Sanders said. “It was a good time for us on Senior Night just to see our senior play and make that shot. But we played great as a team tonight and that was just the cherry on top.”
Umstead finished with 14 points to lead Westchester (7-13, 0-9), which shot 50% in the first half and got a handful of stops to key a nine-point run that gave it the lead early in the second. MJ Edwards and Zane Dinkins each had eight points as the Wildcats, a smaller 2A team, finally near the end of a brutal conference slate against larger teams.
“I thought we played well in spurts,” Westchester coach Brook Patterson said. “At the end we lost our composure and things fell apart for us. They just played better than we did – they’ve been doing that to people all year.
“I thought we did a great job against their zone early. Then when they went man-to-man, we acted like we’ve never played against man all year. We got a little frustrated and that’s when they made that run late in the first half.”
Michael Lindsay | Enterprise Sports Writer Feb 7, 2023 Updated 6 hrs ago
HIGH POINT – Westchester Country Day was playing well and feeling good early. But High Point Christian put a stop to that.
The Cougars scored the final 10 points of the second quarter to build a lead into halftime, then raced away in the second half to beat the crosstown rival Wildcats 63-34 in PTAC boys basketball Tuesday night on Senior Night at HPCA.
In the girls game, HPCA clamped down defensively, pulled away with solid stretches of offense and cruised to a 51-8 victory.
“I thought our energy improved really from the guys on the court and the guys on the bench,” Cougars boys coach Joseph Cooper said. “It’s a great night, being Senior Night, and I think it just took us a little bit to get going.”
Isaiah Sanders scored 16 points – including six during the pivotal second-quarter run – to lead HPCA (16-13 overall, 5-4 conference), in fourth place in an extremely competitive conference. Amori McLeod added nine points, while Toot Clay and Adam Grier each followed with seven points.
“I thought we underestimated them, that we were going to run over them,” Sanders said. “But Coach told us we were going to have to play. Once we put all our players back in, we just started playing and went from there.
“I felt like we had to play defense – we weren’t playing any defense. Me, personally, I had to start playing defense. Once we got steals and layups, the game started getting hectic and that’s layup central.”
Westchester twice led by a point midway through the second – on a transition dunk by Jalen Umstead and a long 3-pointer by MJ Edwards. But the Cougars quickly regained the lead on a pair of free throws by Grier – sparking a 10-point run over the final three minutes in which HPCA forced turnovers and ran in transition.
HPCA led 27-18 into halftime and quickly pulled away in the second half. The Cougars, who outshot the Wildcats by a 46% to 39% advantage from the field for the game, pushed their lead to 19 to end the third and got it to 29 in the final minute on a 3-pointer by Darius Kane – a senior who’s missed the entire season due to injury.
“It was amazing seeing him play because he hasn’t played in months,” Sanders said. “It was a good time for us on Senior Night just to see our senior play and make that shot. But we played great as a team tonight and that was just the cherry on top.”
Umstead finished with 14 points to lead Westchester (7-13, 0-9), which shot 50% in the first half and got a handful of stops to key a nine-point run that gave it the lead early in the second. MJ Edwards and Zane Dinkins each had eight points as the Wildcats, a smaller 2A team, finally near the end of a brutal conference slate against larger teams.
“I thought we played well in spurts,” Westchester coach Brook Patterson said. “At the end we lost our composure and things fell apart for us. They just played better than we did – they’ve been doing that to people all year.
“I thought we did a great job against their zone early. Then when they went man-to-man, we acted like we’ve never played against man all year. We got a little frustrated and that’s when they made that run late in the first half.”
