Blazer boys have big 3Q

A strong third quarter propelled the Blazers to quadrant win

Erick Starkey
Posted 1/31/18

After the Torrington Trailblazer boys went into halftime down 19-17 at home Friday against Douglas, the Blazers put together a huge third quarter and held on for the 52-46 quadrant win.

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Blazer boys have big 3Q

A strong third quarter propelled the Blazers to quadrant win

Posted

TORRINGTON – After the Torrington Trailblazer boys went into halftime down 19-17 at home Friday against Douglas, the Blazers put together a huge third quarter and held on for the 52-46 quadrant win.

Douglas came out hot, kicking off the game with an 8-0 run, but the Blazers closed the quarter on a 6-0 run to put the score at 8-6 after the first eight minutes of action. In the second frame, the difference stayed at two points with Jordan Malm hitting one of his free throws at the end of the half to bring the score to 19-17 in favor of the Bearcats.

“I think we were a little shell-shocked to come out and get hit with eight-straight points,” Malm said. “We knew it would be a tough game, but they came with fire and they kept it through the whole game.”

Returning to the court, Torrington racked up 14 points in the third quarter, while limiting Douglas to eight, giving the Blazers a 33-25 lead with eight minutes to go.

“We really stressed finding your man and closing and boxing out and getting to the boards,” Malm said. “We got killed on the boards in the first half, but I feel like we did a better job in the second on crashing the glass.”

The Bearcats started chipping away at the lead in the fourth quarter, cutting the Blazer advantage to five (41-36) with 3:37 left on the clock. With 2:30 remaining, Torrington was up 43-39 and a bucket by Jared Lemmon upped the Blazer lead to 45-39. A Douglas layup was followed by two made free throws by Josh Posten, giving the Blazers a 47-41 lead.

The Bearcats didn’t go away without a fight, converting on an old fashioned three-point play to bring the score to 47-44 with 1:10 to go. Malm hit two free throws and a travel by Douglas gave the ball back to Torrington, with Posten adding another two free throws, giving the Blazes a 51-44 advantage with 24.4 seconds remaining. Lemmon hit another free throw and Douglas knocked down a layup in the waning moments, giving the Blazers the six-point conference win.

“We shoot pressure free throws every day and that’s what you shoot them for,” Malm said. “If we don’t hit those free throws at the end, it’s a tie game or they win. That’s what it comes down to at the end is free throws and steady defense.”

Bryan Lemmon paced the Blazers with 13 points on the night, including six from behind the arc and three from the chairty stripe. He also had a team-high nine rebounds along with two assists and three steals.

Nathan Stitt and Jared Lemmon each accounted for 10 points in the win. Lemmon filled his stat line with six rebounds, a steal and a team-high three assists, while Stitt chipped in three boards, an assist and three steals.

Malm accounted for nine points, two rebounds an assist and two steals. Posten came off the bench to kick in eight points, including five from the free-throw line (5-of-6), two rebounds, three assists and a steal. Bo Moorehouse rounded out the scorers, tallying two points, a rebound, an assist and two steals.

With a win, the Blazers improved to 8-5 on the year, with a 2-1 record against quadrant opponents, putting them second in the standings behind Newcastle (10-3, 4-0). Torrington has two more home games this weekend, hosting Worland on Friday at 7 p.m. and playing Thermopolis on Saturday at 3:30 p.m.

“It’s a conference win and that definitely helps, but we have to keep a level head and move on,” Malm said. “We have Thermopolis and Worland next week and those are both key games so we will take all this into consideration and move toward regionals and hopefully state.”