INDIANAPOLIS — Everybody and their Uncle LeRoy was fired up about seeing Ben Davis go over to Lawrence Central to match their athleticism. It would be two teams that could get up and down the floor for a great Friday night cap.
Well playas, Lawrence Central got up and down the floor like LeBron’s Miami Heat as they ran the Giants out of the gym 72-57. And trust me, the final score was not indicative of the rout that actually took place.
Lawrence Central jumped out of the ride and went up 10-2 and that was a terrible premonition of things to come for the Giants.
Ben Davis’ big man, Dawand Jones, was getting great looks at the basket early on but couldn’t get them to fall. Credit LC for playing fire defense on the big guy. That added to BD’s problems as nothing seemed to fall for anybody in purple. Give the Bears tall credit for that as they were all over the ball wherever it went.
Lawrence Central moved the ball extremely well in transition as they got easy buckets.
Ben Davis couldn’t seem to settle down as they played on their heels the entire game. By the time I bit into my hot dog good they were down 17-3 and at the end of 1st quarter LC was cruising 25-8.
The Bears jumped out of the Big Body Chevy to go on a 8-0 run as they went up 33-8 and clinic was “On and Poppin’” like Chris Brown up in that piece. They put on a dunkfest in the first half with 4 brutal throw downs to take away what was left of BD’s confidence.
By the time the horn sounded at the break the LC Bears were up 40-15.
Big Momma must have come into the BD locker room at the half and threatened not to make her world famous sweet potato pie for Christmas because they came out and outscored LC 24-19 in the third quarter but was still down 59-32 headed into the fourth.
The Giants did have a one spark in the final period as the 6’9” 360-pound Jones ripped PJ Thompson and finished with a massive dunk on the other end.
At the 4:15 mark the Giants had cut it to an 18 point deficit being down 61-43. However, it was too little too late.
Without a shot clock in Indiana high school basketball it’s virtually impossible to come from behind. All a boy has to do is hold on to the ball to cruise on in.
Lawrence was led by Jake Laravia‘s 28 points followed by Dre Davis with 17 as Nijel Pack dropped off a clean 15 for good measure.
Ben Davis was led by Jalen Windham’s 14 points as Dawand Jones finished with 12.