PCA drops decision to Flames|Prep basketball
Published 12:00 am Wednesday, January 20, 2010
FLOWOOD — For five minutes Tuesday, Porters Chapel played hard and hung tough against University Christian.
The rest of the night, not so much.
K’Shun Evans had a game-high 16 points and seven rebounds off the bench, and University Christian surged past a listless PCA squad in the second and third quarters before cruising to a 51-18 victory.
PCA has now been outscored 110-38 in its last two games. On Tuesday, it made just seven field goals — three of them in the first five minutes. A 3-pointer by Matthew Warren, a layup by Colby Rushing and a free throw by Rushing were the only points the Eagles scored in the second and third quarters.
“The past two games we’ve just quit. We have not done that all year. They were deeper, they had more talent, but we could have given them a much better game than we did,” PCA coach E.J. Creel said. “We’ve been playing three and four games a week and depth helps. That’s still no excuse. If we lose because of depth it should happen in the fourth quarter, not the second.”
PCA (5-6, 4-6 District 5-A) trailed by just three points, 9-6, with 3:05 left in the first quarter. The slide started quickly, though, and never let up.
University Christian (12-7, 7-2) stretched the lead to 16-8 by the end of the period, then started the second with a 9-0 run. Warren’s 3-pointer with 4:42 left cut it to 25-11, but the Flames went on another big run to close the second quarter and led 38-11 at halftime.
University Christian coach Josh Dorman called off the dogs in the second half, playing all of his reserves and not pressing. The Flames only scored 13 points in the second half. PCA still couldn’t chop into the lead, though. The Eagles went 3-for-17 from the field in the second half, with two of the baskets coming in the last three minutes.
In all, PCA shot 16.3 percent (7-for-43) for the game. Rushing led the team with nine points, and Zach Rachal grabbed eight rebounds.
Dorman said his team’s superior depth — all 16 players got in the game, while PCA has just nine on its roster — was the difference.
“I think (PCA) played hard. We ran 10 players at them and I think they got tired. More than packing it in, I think they got tired,” Dorman said.
(G) U. Christian 41, Porters Chapel 15
Rachel Wilson scored 18 points, Alex Gregory added nine, and University Christian (9-10, 6-4 District 5-A) kept Porters Chapel (0-11, 0-10) winless.
PCA fell behind quickly, 18-3 at the end of the first quarter. The Lady Eagles made only three baskets in the first three quarters — oddly, all of them were 3-pointers. Claire Mims, Caray Norris and Marshealia Grase all hit one.
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Contact Ernest Bowker at ebowker@vicksburgpost.com