The defense was cranked up from the very beginning Thursday night for the University Heights Academy Blazers. The offense struggled a bit early on, but once the Blazers got it on track, there was not much that the Raceland Rams could do to stop the Blazers on either end of the court.
After shooting just 29.4 percent in the opening quarter, University Heights shot over 58 percent over the next three quarters as the Blazers ‘sheared’ the Raceland Rams 69-35 in the opening round of the 2023 All A Classic in Richmond. Not only was the UHA offense running in high gear, the defense smothered the Rams, forcing them into 22 turnovers, coming up with 13 steals, and allowing them to shoot just 27.3 percent for the night.
For the opening minutes of the game, it looked as if the Blazers might have to fight off the Rams tooth and nail as UHA struggled to find its outside shooting eye in the arena setting. The saving grace early for the Blazers came in the form of Elijah Walton, who scored 9 points and pulled down 4 rebounds in the opening quarter.
The Blazers were leading 10-9 late in the first when Preston Thomas made a free throw and Javion Brown knocked down a three to give the Blazers a 14-9 lead after one. That shot from Brown would feel like it was the one that got the avalanche started against the Rams. At this point, Raceland was hanging on by a thread, a thread that was beginning to fray.
Led by Jacob Gauze and Christian Large, the Rams would pull to within 16-13 with 5:38 to go in the half. The Blazers would then leave Raceland standing in the dust over the next several moments.
In a span of just over 90 seconds moment later in the half, the Blazers would deliver a run that was effectively a game-ending run. In that 90 seconds, Gavin Grubbs hit a three, Elijah Walton scored a layup, Lemar Northington drilled a three and then threw down a crowd-stirring jam and promtped a timeout for the Rams. After the timeout, Raceland missed a shot and Northington hit another three, and just like that it was 29-13.
The Blazers would go into the locker room holding a 33-20 lead and Blazer nation was feeling mighty fine.
Raceland would shoot much better in the third quarter, but still had plenty of problems dealing with the UHA defense. The Rams negated their improved shooting with another seven turnovers as the Blazers extended the lead to 51-30. Elijah Walton had another dominant quarter in the lane for UHA, scoring another 10 points in the quarter.
The Blazers then slammed the hammer down hard in the final quarter, allowing Raceland just five points as UHA pulled away to the final 34-point margin and punched their ticket into Friday night’s quarterfinals. UHA held Raceland to 1 of 16 from the field and 1 of 12 from behind the line in the final quarter.
Elijah Walton came up huge for the Blazers with 21 points and 7 rebounds. Lemar Northington also hit double figures with 15. Just missing a double-digit night was Javion Brown, who ended the game with 9 points.
Another note for the Blazers, with the big win the starters did not have to play extensive minutes which could come into play with a 9:30pm game coming up Friday night.
Raceland was led by Landyn Newman with 12 points. Leading scorer Christian Large was held to 10 points on the night.
UHA improves to 14-7 on the season with the win and now gets ready for a late night game Friday against 3rd Region champion Owensboro Catholic, who easily handled Cumberland County in Thursday night’s last game.
