Still licking their wounds somewhat from last weekend’s double-up in the losing column, the Purple and Gold came out this weekend guns a’blazin’ knocking off both of their weekend opponents.
On Friday, the Hornets traveled to Guernsey where they shot down the Vikings 58-40 and Saturday saw the boy’s squad back on home turf to knock off the Warriors of Leyton, 42-37.
"It was a rough, physical game that saw us struggle in the first quarter," head coach Pat Walter said of Friday’s match up.
Down 10-16 in the first, the Hornets owned the second quarter holding the Vikings to six points while the Purple and Gold cagers tossed 18 on the board to end the first half up 28-22.
"Our kids kept their cool and played our game," Walter said adding, "we had a good balanced scoring and did a good job of controlling the tempo to extend our lead in the second half."
The Hornets held the Vikings to 18 total points in the second half and left Guernsey with a 58-40 win.
In the contest, junior, Blayne Gilbert was the squad’s top marksman, notching 12 points while Eryn Smith got to the ball for eight rebounds to lead the team.
Saturday found the boys back in the Hornets’ Nest to face off against the Leyton Warriors.
"First quarter we had a lot of transition points and did a good job on defense of making them work hard for every look and limiting them to one shot on each possession," said the head coach.
Walter noted that the second quarter saw his squad struggling with the half-court set while in the third quarter, Walter said his team took too many on defense.
"Unfortunately when we didn’t get steals it led to easy looks for them," said Walter. "Things got tight when we settled for (and missed) jump shots instead of attacking the rim."
Walter added that despite going 4 of 11 from the free throw line in the second half, the Purple and Gold held their own and held on to win.
Gilbert again led the squad in scoring and was also the team’s high rebounder notching nine in both categories.
With two games at home, the Hornets host the Potter-Dix Coyotes on Friday, junior varsity starts at 4 p.m. while varsity action gets going at 5:30 p.m. On Saturday, the Tigers from Lusk invade the home court with j.v. up at 1 p.m. and the main show kicking off at 4 p.m.
