Already this season we’ve seen a lot of close games in the Cardinal District. There was another one Tuesday night at Hylton and in this battle, two key seniors powered the Bulldogs to victory.
Forward Lucas Scroggins had 21 points and 12 rebounds, while guard Kelby Garnett had 22 points and hit four clutch free throws down the stretch, as Hylton outlasted Colgan, 56-53.
“It’s all about maturity,” Garnett said when asked what his senior-laden team has to do to keep winning the close games. “This is my time as a senior. We’ve got to stay focused, stay smart. Defensive, gritty team like Colgan is tough, but we just have to keep ballin’, keep doing us.”
Early on it looked like Hylton would blow out the visitors. The Bulldogs’ height and zone defense held the smaller Sharks to six first quarter points, and they began the second quarter with a beautiful alley-oop from Garnett to Scroggins that got the home crowd fired up. Midway through the second quarter the Bulldogs led by 15 with all the momentum.
Colgan didn’t quit, slowly chipping away at Hylton’s lead and forcing turnovers with defensive pressure. Sharks senior Chance Lundy hit a shot late in the second quarter and then found Micah Ferguson for a three-pointer to cut the Hylton lead to 10 at half. The Colgan defense held Hylton to just four points the first six minutes of the second half, as the Sharks closed the deficit to 35-33.
Hylton weathered the run, with Garnett driving to the hoop at the end of the third quarter to build his team’s lead back up to 41-35. But, Garnett was injured on the play and came out of the game with what appeared to be a foot or ankle injury.
“I actually just caught a bad cramp,” said Garnett.
Garnett came back in a few minutes later, but not before Colgan took advantage of his absence to claw to 41-40. Eventually the Sharks tied the game at 48 on a tenacious offensive rebounding effort by senior Troy Gulley, Jr. and junior Skylar Smith.
Two free throws later Smith had given Colgan had its first lead of the night at 50-48 with 1:57 left.
It was short-lived, however, because that’s when Scroggins and Garnett delivered for Hylton. Garnett dribbled the length of the floor and stuck a mid-range jumper to re-tie the score. Scroggins cleared the rebound on a Colgan miss, and was fouled on the other end in the post. He hit the first free throw and missed the second, but the ball remained with Hylton after it was tipped out of bounds.
Garnett was fouled in the lane and made one-of-two free throws to make it 52-50, Bulldogs. He didn’t miss again from the charity stripe, going four-of-four the rest of the way to seal the victory. Colgan (2-2, 8-3) had a three-pointer to try and tie as time expired, but it was awry.
Colgan was hurt by poor foul shooting (12-23), but its balanced attack was led by Smith, who finished with 13 points. Lundy had a great all-around game with 11 points, seven boards, and five assists, while Ferguson added 10 points.
It wasn’t enough against the veteran Bulldogs (3-2, 11-4), who have 12 seniors on their roster. Dylan Wright, Rodney Johnson, Chance Cathcart, and Matthew Toman–all seniors–provided the rest of the Hylton points on the evening. Despite the notable contributions of Scroggins and Garnett, you could tell this was truly a team victory. Garnett said as much after the game.
“It was hard tonight,” he said, referring in part to his severe cramping. “If it wasn’t for my team, I wouldn’t be here. They helped me get up from the start and fight through.”
–Chris Jollay
all stats are unofficial
| COLGAN | FG | FT | TP | REB | AST | |
| LUNDY | 5-8 | 1-3 | 11 | 7 | 5 | |
| SMITH | 4-11 | 5-6 | 13 | 7 | 0 | |
| GARRISON, JR | 4-13 | 0-0 | 9 | 0 | 0 | |
| FERGUSON | 4-8 | 0-0 | 10 | 1 | 0 | |
| GULLEY, JR | 2-10 | 4-8 | 8 | 10 | 3 | |
| Ament | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |
| Futyma | 0-1 | 1-4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| Eppley | 0-3 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Pennix | 0-2 | 1-2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | |
| TOTALS | 19-57 | 12-23 | 53 | 28 | 9 | |
| Threes: Ferguson 2-4, Garrison 1-7, Ament 0-1, Lundy 0-2, Eppley 0-3 | ||||||
| HYLTON | FG | FT | TP | REB | AST | |
| GARNETT | 8-12 | 6-9 | 22 | 0 | 3 | |
| WRIGHT | 2-5 | 0-1 | 4 | 3 | 3 | |
| JOHNSON | 2-4 | 0-1 | 4 | 6 | 0 | |
| CATHCART | 1-5 | 0-0 | 2 | 3 | 3 | |
| SCROGGINS | 9-14 | 3-5 | 21 | 12 | 0 | |
| Toman | 1-2 | 0-0 | 3 | 2 | 1 | |
| Grimes | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
| Williams | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Farmer | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| TOTALS | 23-43 | 9-16 | 56 | 26 | 11 | |
| Threes: Toman 1-2, Garnett 0-1, Wright 0-1, Williams 0-1 | ||||||