Princeton – With four all-staters in the starting lineup, there’s been an anticipation that Class AA No. 2 Wyoming East will buzz through the season.
The Warriors were reminded in their opener that they’re going to get every team’s best shot and Tuesday night they barely survived it.
East, which led by 10 with a minute to go, survived a late flurry from Summit Christian, hanging on for a 68-67 over the Falcons in Princeton.
It was a battle of styles for the two teams with each offsetting the other.
Wyoming East was efficient inside the arc, connecting on 19 of 37 (51 percent) field goals from two-point range, using the size advantage but Summit, which shot 13 of 31 (42 percent) from inside the arc made up for the discrepancy with the long ball, nailed 11 3-pointers.
“We weren’t able to practice yesterday and neither was Summit,” East head coach Kent McBride said. “We had a conversation with the team today after school and showed them some film today about where we were lacking. A lot of it – we think offense starts with a couple basic foundations and we weren’t doing them well and it’s a testament to those guys because we didn’t get a chance to practice it. We showed and they did a much better job today executing offensively and taking high-percentage shots.”
Eli Patton led Summit and all scorers with 30 points, hitting on 10 of his 20 shots including six 3s.
“They’re a good basketball team,” McBride said. “We knew going into it that Eli Patton does a good job – and I don’t mean any disrespect because he’s a dude and plays without conscience so you know when he see daylight it’s going up in the air but I didn’t think we did a good job of taking away the rhythm 3s. Now, out of those I think three or four were banks so you kind of got to live with that, not much you can do with that but I didn’t think we did a good job disrupting what they were trying to do when they got the ball out of their hands.”
The host Falcons put the Warriors on early notice when Adam Jones connected from long range for Summit’s first field goal of the night. For straight points from all-star Broc Johnson later in the frame put the Warriors ahead 11-5 but Dylan Jones added a they to stay within striking distance.
A three-point play from Konnor Fox, who finished with four dunks on the night, and a floater from Keegan Davidson pushed East’s lead to 16-9 but later in the frame Fox was hit for a technical after a dunk, sparking the Falcons.
Patton connected on a 3 and later a free throw, cutting the deficit to five at the end of the first frame.
With Fox seated, Summit worked back, ripping a 7-0 run to take a 23-22 lead, its first since Jones’ first 3. But a 15-7 run to close the quarter, sparked by Davidson and Johnson, put the visitors ahead 37-30 at the break.
“That’s when I had to sit Kyler (Carpenter),” Summit head coach Matt Patton said. “He picked up his third foul and it hurts a lot. He’s just such a big body and a rim protector and he’s able to help execute offensively. I probably need to do a better job getting the other guys more ready to be able to do that so that’s on me. I think that’s probably the biggest part. I think I had to sit Eli a little too in the second quarter so that’s a big hit. I know they had some guys in foul trouble too but not having Kyler and Eli definitely hurt us a little bit.”
East threatened to pull away early in the third when Johnson nailed a 3 and Fox followed with two more for a 12-point lead, the largest of the night for either team but it was Patton once again stopping the bleeding, netting another 3. That didn’t stop the Warriors from extending the advantage back to 10 at 51-41, never letting it drop below five until the final minute when Patton, and Jones unleashed a flurry of deep balls.
Patton struck first to cut the deficit to seven before Jones followed to make it a four-point game. Johnson netted a pair of free throws before Patton was true from deep again with just under four seconds to play. Needing to foul, Summit did just that, sending Talan Muscari to the line.
The sophomore all-stater made one of them, which ended up being just enough as a Patton heave from 70 feet connected at the buzzer, accounting for the final three points.
“Our offense was substantially better than we’ve seen at any point in the preseason,” McBride said. “Not necessarily our defense but you takeaway that it’s there. I would love them to mesh in December but the reality is you’re probably not going to mesh everything together. You’re probably going to have to pull from here and pull from there until things click and they will but I think we were able to pull from this that we played much better offensively than we played in any scrimmage.”
Johnson led East with 20 points while Davidson and Fox netted 18 points each.
Dylan Jones added 14 in the loss for Summit.
Wyoming East
Keegan Davidson 18, Talan Muscari 9, Broc Johnson 20, Braxton Morgan 3, Konnor Fox 18
Summit Christian
Adam Jones 12, Dylan Jones 14, Kyler Carpenter 8, Eli Patton 30, Ben Thyng 3
WE: 22 15 14 17 – 68
SC: 17 13 11 26 – 67
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