The answer: 23.
“Twenty-three! Ooh, that’s big.”
»RELATED: Saturday’s high school roundup
»RELATED: Saturday’s high school scoreboard
Yes, those 23 turnovers were a big reason why Springfield — the fastest collection of players head coach Isaiah Carson has put on the floor — defeated Hamilton 71-50 Saturday night.
“We’re really fast,” Moss said. “We like to get up and down, get fast-break points. We like trap you a lot, make you turn the ball over and get big dunks and layups.”
Moss knows all about dunks.
After a ho-hum first quarter and a 15-14 lead, Springfield (5-2) unleashed its cat-like reflexes on Hamilton (4-4) in the second quarter to take a 36-23 lead into halftime. Moss got loose for a rim-shaking, two-handed dunk to kickstart the run. But the highlight was back-to-back alley-oop dunks for Moss off turnovers. Jalan Minney threw the first pass to the rim for Moss and Michael Brown-Stephens threw the second.
Moss slammed another alley-oop pass in the second half from David Sanford and finished with a game-high 20 points. Larry Stephens added 15 points and Sanford had nine. Minney had four assists and Stephens, Sanford and Moss had three each.
“What I love about this team is we’re not selfish at all,” Moss said. “We like to play a lot, we like to get up and down, but it all starts on the defensive end when we’re getting turnovers. They love to play defense, and it all starts in practice.”
The Wildcats use their speed to double team at three-quarters court and on either side of the half-court line. They force long over-the-top passes and make interceptions. The best Hamilton could often get was a corner jump shot.
“Hurried, long shots — we’ll live with that all day,” Carson said. “We don’t want to give up layups, and I thought we did a good job with that tonight.”
The defense will get a boost going forward when 6-foot-5 junior Raymans Cole returns from injury. That will also allow Moss to move from the post position to his natural spot on the wing.
“(Cole) takes us to a whole new level,” Carson said. “He can play on the front of the press, he can play on the back of the press. He’s a shot blocker, he’s a rebounder, he’s a 50-50 guy — those things you can’t really teach. Once we get him back for a couple games we’re looking to get hitting on all cylinders.”
Carson said this was one of the best team wins of the season. “We executed amazingly, especially on the offensive side,” he said, and Stephens was a big part of it. He made two 3-pointers and attacked the basket for his other points.
“Larry Stephens played amazing tonight,” Carson said. “He made some timely buckets. We had a talk and he went out there and executed what we talked about. Defensively he was amazing as the anchor at the top.”
The Wildcats are 4-0 and in first place in the GWOC National East. They play at Lebanon before hosting Fairmont and Wayne in their next three games. Then they face national power Prolific Prep at the Flyin’ To The Hoop event.
“We don’t have a loss in the Dayton area — I love our chances in the Dayton area, especially when we’re healthy,” Carson said. “It’s better to hit your full stride later than earlier.”
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