Jackson Smith and Brent Harris played out of their minds Tuesday night, cutting down 6’9” skyscraper Owen Graham to size, and the rest of the North Andrew squad couldn’t make it up as Worth County got their second win of the season, 54-42 over North Andrew. On top of that, Jackson Smith shared scoring honors with Grant Cameron, getting 13 points for the night.
Smith and Harris took turns guarding Graham, faceguarding him all over the post so that he couldn’t get the ball. Graham got his points with 16, as did Hayden Ecker with 13, but the Tigers had a balanced attack, with six players scoring six or more and the Tigers getting the kind of depth that coach Les New was looking for.
North Andrew scored the first basket of the game, but then got off to an inauspicious start as Graham tipped a ball into the wrong basket while trying to get a rebound. For the rest of the first quarter, it was all Tigers as Tyler New scored off an Aydan Gladstone steal, Aydan took on Graham and another red shirt and scored two free throws, Jackson Runde hit a 3-pointer, as did Jackson Smith, Aydan Gladstone had a pullup, Brent Harris got on the board with a backdoor look, and Tyler New converted a drive at the buzzer to put the Tigers up 18-4.
The second quarter was a different story as North Andrew started making a concerted effort to get Graham the ball and Ecker knocked down a couple of 3-pointers in the period. Smith’s second triple put the Tigers up 21-6, but then North Andrew switched from a man to a zone and started coming back. By the 2:31 mark, the lead had shrunk to 24-20 after a lob to Graham, but then Jackson Runde stopped the bleeding with a 3-pointer before Braxon Linville’s layup at the buzzer cut North Andrew’s deficit to 27-22 at the half.
Linville cut inside and scored to start the second half, but then Worth County did a much better job of controlling the ball, and they got some offensive boards to keep possessions alive. They rebuilt their lead as Jackson Smith hit a 3-pointer and Aydan Gladstone scored from inside to make it 32-24. While Gladstone was not the leading scorer, he was occupying the Cardinal defense and was opening everyone else up.
North Andrew cut it back down to 32-27, but then Grant Cameron, who had missed a ton of shots in the first half, hit a 3-pointer from the left side. He then stole a lazy inbounds pass, his second of the night, and hit another one to make it 38-27. The teams traded buckets until the early part of the fourth quarter, when Brent Harris twice got loose backdoor to put Worth County up 47-32 to start the period.
The Cardinals tried to press, but then Grant Cameron scored off a Tyler New steal and then added a 3-pointer to make it 52-35.
North Andrew got a late rally, fueled by several missed free throws by the Tigers. They got as close as 52-42 before Grant Cameron got loose in transition and got a layup with 15 seconds left to put icing on the cake.
Grant Cameron and Jackson Smith had 13 points each for the Tigers. Tyler New had 10, and Aydan Gladstone, Jackson Runde, and Brent Harris all had 6.
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