Spurger gave Big Sandy basketball all they could handle for a half, but the Wildcats were too strong over the final two periods, capturing a 66-46 victory in Dallardsville Tuesday.
The Pirates had their best quarter in the second, scoring 15 and holding the home team to a dozen. Spurger went into the half trailing by just four and had momentum.
“I was worried about this game because we've already played Spurger and they gave us everything we wanted at the tournament,” Big Sandy coach Dalton Flowers said. “I knew that we were going to get everything they had tonight. They came out strong; it was a four-point game at half.”
Big Sandy played Spurger previously at the Colmesneil tournament where they were champions. The Wildcats also won as tournament hosts in the first week of December.
“I was real proud (tonight) because we've played in two tournaments the last two weeks, and we've won two championships in two weeks,” Flowers said. “We've played nine games in 11 days, which is a lot. We didn't play great down the stretch in the last tournament. I feel like fatigue set in, but we're going to take a win all day.”
The game was close until a solid Wildcat performance in the second half, where some adjustments were made during the break.
“They were getting us in transition offense on fast breaks, and we wanted to slow that down. So, we went a little bit of zone there for about a four-minute stretch and then jumped back to man to kind of throw them off, because they were pushing the ball down the sidelines quick. They were able to really penetrate from that and get some open looks. We wanted to cut that off.”
Naki Thompson scored half of his team-leading 24 points in the third quarter, pacing a 22-point outburst that allowed Big Sandy to pull ahead by double digits.
The coach was pleased with the unselfishness on the offensive end of the court.
“Offensively, we just shared the ball like nobody's business tonight. That was great. It was a great team effort. I told the boys after the game, offensively, this is the best we've played in a while, just sharing the basketball. Our sophomore, Naki, kind of went off tonight.”
Along with Thompson’s 24, Colt Bullock scored 12 and Jamesley Flowers had 11.
The win puts the ‘Cats at 12-2 now, with a little under a month until district contests begin.
The team will participate in the Boles tournament at the end of 2025 and travel to Anderson-Shiro in the new year. Trinity on Jan. 9 will be the next home contest.
