Sometimes a basketball team can fall into such a deep hole early in a game that climbing out is all but impossible.
That’s what happened to the Houston High School boys last Friday, as the Tigers trailed 20-6 at the end of the first quarter and 42-17 at halftime on the way to an 87-66 loss to Licking in Tiger Fieldhouse.
After the sluggish start, Houston outscored the visiting Wildcats 49-45 in the second half, but that barely reduced the huge deficit.
“What you saw in the second half is the team that I know we should be,” said HHS head coach Dan Narancich. “I am OK with the moral victory of what happened during the game. I do love getting into the win column for the boys, but watching them come back when we started so flat and fighting after only scoring 17 points in the first half will lead to those.”
The Tigers sank only 3-of-12 shots from 3-point range and went 5-for-10 from the free throw line in the contest, while the Wildcats went 9-for-19 from deep and made 12-of-20 attempts from the stripe.
Senior guard Jordan Arthur poured in 18 points in the second half and led Houston in scoring with 20 points, while senior guard Nick Dennis scored 8 points in the fourth quarter and finished with a career-high 15. The Tigers’ two big men were busy, as 6-5 junior Gavyn Daily scored a career-high 12 points (all in the second half) and 6-5 senior Brody Adkison scored 8 points and had a team-high 6 rebounds.
Licking had five players score in double figures. Junior forward Benton Corley sank three 3-pointers (including a 45-foot buzzer-beater at the end of the first period) and led the way with 19 points, while seniors Kannon Buckner and Jordan Ritz each had 14 points, senior Roston Stockard had 13 and junior Karson Walker added 12 (including 10 in the fourth quarter).
“I wasn’t mad or upset after the game because the boys came out of halftime and showed everyone what they could do and what we have been working on,” Narancich said. “These boys have the greatest potential to play aggressive ball for 4 quarters; that is the goal we have been trying to reach, but they have to believe that they are as good as what we see quarters of in different games. Hopefully we will get to see them put it all together in 4 quarters on game nights.”
The Tigers were far more active on both ends of the floor in the second half.
“The boys played well the second half,” Narancich said. “They pushed the ball, played aggressive, started rebounding and driving, and utilizing our bigs on the inside. The first half, the boys just weren’t there. We were not taking care of the ball, and we were slowing down our game. We went into the locker room at half and explained to them that we need to find that fire inside and bring it out every time we step on the court. We have to want to come out and just know we want every ball, every shot and every steal that we can get.
“It was different, though, in the first half.”
The Tigers were scheduled to travel to Newburg on Tuesday of this week, but the game was canceled due to the wintry outburst the region experienced Sunday and into Monday.
Houston (2-7) was to play Friday (Jan. 10) at Summersville, but that game was postponed until Feb. 6 due to snow in the forecast. Weather permitting, the Tigers will host Norwood next Tuesday (Jan. 14).