JAY — Winless Leavitt almost came back in the end to earn its first victory of the season, but the Hornets ran into a Spruce Mountain team that played an end-to-end brand of basketball that was the recipe for success in a 52-46 KVAC boys’ basketball victory Tuesday night at the Phoenix Dome.
The game looked comfortably in hand for the Phoenix (5-5) early in the fourth quarter after they drained three 3-pointers in the first two minutes of the period — two by Andrew Darling — to take a 45-30 lead.
It was a familiar situation for the Phoenix, but not necessarily a comforting one for head coach Scott Bessey.
“We’ve had teams come back on us a couple times this year,” Bessey said, pointing to blown late leads against Poland and Gardiner. “I think that kind of creeps into everybody’s head, like ‘oh no.’ I know it crept into mine.”
Instead of the Phoenix getting to the foul line to salt the game away, it was the hosts who began doing the fouling, as Bessey said his team began “hacking” at a Hornets (0-11) team looking to start a comeback.
Eli Calder, Nate Goulette and DJ James all contributed to Leavitt’s attempt to rally back. Calder poured in nine of his 11 points in the fourth while being weighed down by four fouls.
“I thought he got it going pretty good in the fourth,” Leavitt head coach Mike Hathaway said of Calder. “We needed some points, so we went to him and he did a nice job of knocking down some shots.”
A 3 by Goulette drew the Hornets within 49-46 with 28 seconds left in the game, but they couldn’t draw any closer. Instead, one last forced turnover by the Phoenix proved to be the final nail in the coffin for Leavitt.
“Turnovers got to us. Turnovers hurt us all game I thought,” Hathaway said. “They do a nice job defensively of putting some pressure on you, and we turned some over unforced as well. If we had taken better care of the ball there we would have been in better shape.”
The Hornets looked to be in good shape after one quarter. They held a 14-10 lead, with James scoring six of his team-high 13 points.
Bessey, who said his team “bricked everything” in the first quarter, finally saw some of his players knock down shots in the second.
Noah Preble and Mason Shink did the shot-making. The pair scored seven points apiece to start the period and stake the Phoenix to a 24-18 lead with two minutes to go before halftime.
“Second quarter, I thought Mason and Noah started knocking down shots,” Bessey said. “And that sped us up. Now we’re able to full-court pressure off made shots, and that kind of got the game going in our favor.”
Spruce Mountain stretched its lead to 29-18 before the Hornets ended the half with a pair of baskets — including a Chandler Lajoie put-back with less than a second left — to make it 29-22 at intermission.
The third quarter was all defensive. Hathaway was happy with how his team played at that end of the court, holding Spruce Mountain to just seven points. The Phoenix were even better on the defensive end, however, allowing only a layup by Max Green in the period.
“The speed and the full-court pressure is our bread and butter. It’s who we are,” Bessey said. “Our strength is in our speed and our tempo, so we force it. No mater make or miss, we’re up.”
Spruce Mountain then got offensive. Darling and Brandon Anctil combined for a trio of treys after Goulette opened the fourth quarter with a three-point play.
That created enough of a cushion for the Phoenix, who spent much of the final period holding on and holding off the Hornets.
“Our guys aren’t going to quit. We haven’t won a game, but that was a pretty max effort on our part,” Hathaway said. “It’s good to see that they’re still hanging with it. Obviously Spruce is a rival game for us, and we were up for it, we just got to play a little better.”
Darling scored a game-high 15 points, coming on four 3s and three free throws. Preble was right behind him with 13 for the Phoenix.
wkramlich@sunjournal.com
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