In a basketball game, there are often ‘runs.’ Then, there are ‘those’ kinds of runs. It was the latter that the University Heights Academy Blazers unleashed on the Madisonville-North Hopkins Maroons Thursday night.
The Blazers used a devastating 27-2 run in the first half to take control of the game and roll on to a 90-70 win on the Maroons home court. The win ended a two-game skid for UHA that saw the Blazers drop tough road battles at McCracken County and Henderson County.
The first quarter was one of big runs for each team. The Blazers opened with their defensive pressure cranked up and bolted out to a 12-2 lead behind big starts from Gavin Grubbs and Tylin George.
After a timeout from Coach Caleb Nelson, the Maroons responded with a 13-2 run, taking their first lead of the night at 15-14. A big spark in the run for Madisonville came off the bench in the form of freshman Nolan Coffman, who scored five points during the run.
The quarter would end with the two teams tied at 17-17.
The second quarter would be all Blazers, in a big way. With the Maroons leading 21-20, UHA unleashed their furious 27-2 blitz to go up 47-23. Grubbs, George, Elijah Walton, and Quinton Quarles, all came up with big plays during the run.
The Maroons would score the final four points of the half to make it 47-27 at the break, giving Madisonville a small bit of momentum, and it would be momentum that the Maroons would carry over to the beginning of the second half.
Coming out of the locker room, Madisonville-North Hopkins quickly threatened to make a game of it again. Led by Aaron Richardson, the Maroons opened the second half by scoring the first nine points to cut the lead to 47-36. But that would essentially be the end of the threat for the Maroons for the night.
With Quarles and George providing the spark, the Blazers finished the quarter outscoring the Maroons 19-10 to run the lead back out to 66-46 going into the final eight minutes.
The UHA lead would grow to as many as 29 points in the final quarter at 84-55 before reserves entered the game for both teams and the Maroons were able to cut the final margin to 20 points.
Gavin Grubbs led the way for the Blazers with 24 points, 16 of them coming in the first half. Tylin George added 20 points. Quinton Quarles had a big second half and finished with 19 points. Elijah Walton ended the game with 14 points.
Madisonville was paced by Lemontae Ratcliff with 15 plans. Aaron Richardson also reached double-figures with 13 points.
University Heights (4-2) now will fly out Sunday to Las Vegas to play in the Tarkanian Classic, December 18-21.
UHA — 17 30 19 24 – 90
MNHHS — 17 10 19 24 – 70
University Heights – Grubbs 24, George 20, Quarles 19, Walton 14, Northington 6, Haurett, Pollard 2,
Madisonville-North Hopkins – Ratcliff 15, Richardson 13, Coffman 9, Peyton 9, Wilkes 7, Smith 6, Johnson 6
