Baylor's Al Peciulis tries to dribble past CCS's Dee Hinton Tuesday night in a Division II-AA region basketball game at Baylor.
photo by Greg Davick
The Baylor Red Raiders lost a close region game at Chattanooga Christian on January 31, so Tuesday night’s game at Baylor’s Jimmy Duke Arena was a good chance for the host team to get even.
They did just a bit more than that as they cruised to a 62-33 victory over the Chargers. More importantly, they clinched second place in region play and they did so without their leading scorer.
Junior standout Nick Kurtz, who had been averaging more than 19 points per game, scored his only two points midway through the first quarter before leaving with an undisclosed leg injury. He didn’t return, but his teammates did an outstanding job of picking up the slack.
Meanwhile, it was game to forget for CCS.
Trailing 25-15 at halftime, Baylor used a 26-5 advantage in the third quarter to put this one away as the Chargers really didn’t offer much of a challenge in the final two quarters.
CCS did enjoy a 13-11 advantage in the final eight minutes, but the outcome had long been determined before that happened.
“We never expected Nick to get hurt, so we had to adjust on the fly and guys had to step up. All had to raise their level of play to compensate for what we were missing,” said Baylor coach Mark Price after his team had improved to 15-8 overall and 3-2 in region play.
“This was a character win for our team as we had to have it to clinch second place in the region. We just had to put the game into the hands of the players, but I feel like they did an outstanding job accepting that challenge.
“We had lost to them at their place a few weeks ago, so we wanted to prove we are a much better team than the one that lost the earlier game,” Price added.
It was a tough pill to swallow for the Chargers and veteran coach Eddie Salter, whose season ends at 15-10 overall and 1-5 in the region.
“I wasn’t expecting that,” Salter said while gathering up personal items from the CCS bench shortly after the final horn sounded.
“Baylor got a lot of good shots and hit most of them. They had that good run in the third quarter and we never recovered. We needed to be more patient on offense, but it seems like Baylor got every loose ball and they just wanted it worse than we did.
“Despite the lopsided score, I feel like we played hard on defense, but it was just pretty bad execution of basketball on our part,” Salter added.
Big Michael Houge, who led the Chargers with a dozen points, scored the first four of the game and CCS had a 5-3 lead following a free throw by Grant Van Meter with 5:29 left in the opening stanza.
Baylor responded with an 11-0 run before a free throw by Houge broke the drought in the final minute.
Baylor’s lead was 14-6 at the first break.
Traveon Scott had a steal and layup with 6:05 left in the half to trim the lead to 15-10, but the Red Raiders scored 10 of the final 15 points in the period for a 25-15 lead at intermission.
Houge’s three-point play at the 4:50 mark of the third stanza and Van Meter’s two charity tosses with 37 seconds left were the only points scored by the Chargers as Baylor put the game away with a 26-point offensive outburst.
Baylor’s biggest lead was 60-25 following a free throw by Al Peciulis with 4:30 to play.
Peciulis picked up a big part of the slack from Kurtz’ absence and finished with 19 points and 11 rebounds to lead Baylor.
Eli Sparkman followed with 15 points while Noah Martin added nine and Ivan Reap seven.
Houge was the leader for CCS with 12 points while Van Meter finished with nine and Rod Young eight.
Baylor had an unofficial 28-15 advantage in rebounds. Peciulis had 11 for Baylor while Houge snagged eight for the Chargers.
BAYLOR GIRLS 60, CCS 39: The Lady Red Raiders are playing their best basketball of the season at just the right time as they improved to 23-5 overall with their 14th straight win and 18th victory in the past 19 games.
Baylor, which was 4-4 at one point, got 16 points from Raegyn Conley and 15 from Cadasia Collins. Macy Ann McKnight, no doubt the most improved player on the team, was also in double figures with 12 points, including 10 in the second half.
Kayla Youell scored nine points to lead the Lady Chargers while Lily Brady had eight and Lillie Lowe seven.
The Baylor boys will wrap up their regular season at McCallie on Saturday while the Baylor girls do the same at GPS on Thursday.
GIRLS SUMMARY
CHATTANOOGA CHRISTIAN 8 7 13 11 -- 39
BAYLOR 20 12 20 8 -- 60
CCS (39) – Lowe 7, Blevins 6, Brady 8, Barnes, Zidan 3, Ricketts 2, Walker 4, Youell 9, Bray, McGhee.
BAYLOR (60) – Stack, White 5, Restelli 9, Conley 16, Oleksik 3, Hughes, Collins 15, Johnson, Wyke, McKnight 12, Trammell.
3-POINT GOALS: Chattanooga Christian 5 (Blevins 2, Brady 2, Youell); Baylor 7 (Restelli, Conley, Collins 5).
BOYS SUMMARY
CHATTANOOGA CHRISTIAN 6 9 5 13 -- 33
BAYLOR 14 11 26 11 -- 62
CCS (33) – Van Meter 9, Young 8, Eng, Hinton, Houge 12, Lewis, Scott 4, Hall.
BAYLOR (62) – E. Sparkman 15, Johnson 4, Mohummad, Jean 2, Reap 7, Peciulis 19, Kurtz 2, Morton, Ebel 4, Martin 9, B. Sparkman, Haynie.
3-POINT GOALS: Chattanooga Christian 4 (Van Meter 2, Young 2); Baylor 4 (E. Sparkman 2, Reap, Peciulis).
(Email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)