‘It starts here.’ Rivalry wins just the beginning for Great Falls boys, Lewisville girls
Lewisville’s Demetric Hardin found himself alone in the corner for an open 3-point attempt in the dwindling minutes of the third quarter on Tuesday night at Great Falls High School.
This, if any time, was Lewisville’s chance to change the fiery rivalry game’s complexion: Lewisville was surging back from a 13-point halftime deficit.
Hardin hit the shot. It added three to his 25 points on the night. He then celebrated by strumming his air guitar. Great Falls’ had been cut to four.
But then, after a timeout, the Red Devils slowly and steadily started to pull away again — using their relentless full-court defense to score in transition, and exploiting a smaller Lewisville team.
Great Falls (3-1) eventually exited its home gym unscathed on Tuesday, defeating Lewisville (1-2), 67-55.
“They’ve bought in,” said first-year Great Falls head coach Alex Fair after the game. “It’s early, but they’re continuing to buy in. That’s where we’re at right now…
“We all have a goal of getting to that last show. The first Saturday in March. It starts here. We take it one day at a time. We don’t take anything for granted. We don’t underestimate any opponent. And we play.”
Great Falls pressed, man to man, all game. And the defensive scheme worked, in part, because of its lightning-quick, bouncy sophomore, Xavier Moore (who’s endearingly nicknamed “Fox”).
“Our goal was to take five charges, and we took more than five,” said Moore, who scored six points on the night. “We played good defense… Our goal was to shut down ‘Junior’ (Hardin), and we did that.”
Great Falls was led in scoring by Tydriez Coleman, who finished with 12 points; DJ Adams, who finished with 11; and Kell Brown, who had nine.
Outside of those three, one player scored seven points; four players scored six points; and two had two points.
“We play an unselfish brand of basketball,” Fair said. “That’s pretty much what’s going on. This is our fourth game, and I think we’ve had four different leading scorers. Everybody is chipping in piece by piece by piece.”
Great Falls’ new head coach: Alex Fair
Coach Fair is so new at Great Falls that he can still remember each and every day he’s been in the Red Devils’ program.
Fair’s hiring was announced on Nov. 27, less than a week before Great Falls’ season opener against York. The season, by Tuesday, was only seven days old.
“Monday (Dec. 2) was our fourth practice,” Fair said. “Tuesday we played York here. Wednesday we went to Fairfield. Thursday we had a walk-through because I had to go to the district to sign the contract. Friday, we played my alma mater, Andrew Jackson.
“With Saturday off, we came back for Sunday and Monday practices. And then we played tonight.”
There won’t be a respite for Fair anytime soon, either. On Friday, Great Falls will travel for a rematch with Andrew Jackson, and on Saturday, at York County’s Battle at the Rock, the Red Devils are slated to play Northwestern — the team Fair was an assistant coach on prior to accepting the helm at Great Falls.
On top of the change in coaching, Great Falls has suffered some attrition in the early goings of the season. For one, Winthrop commit Kelton Talford suffered an injury before the season started, and it forced him to wear a boot and miss Tuesday night’s game.
Also, Tuesday marked the first game of the season for DJ Adams. His entrance into the game in the first quarter was met with a standing ovation.
“DJ has been the ultimate teammate,” Fair said. “Super great attitude — he’s really been the best teammate he could be, waiting for this moment. He understands he’s a senior and this is his last year, last go-round, and he wants to take advantage of every opportunity that comes his way.”
Moore, one of the team’s point guards, said the team is handling all of the change well.
“I love my teammates,” Moore said. “We were down a lot of players. We have 10; we moved two up. They’re two sophomores, and they’re playing pretty good until they come back.”
Lewisville girls wins with second quarter run
Before the boys game, Lewisville girls head coach Tearia McCrorey looked to her bench, smiled and gave a surprised shrug — one that seemed reminiscent of the gesture Michael Jordan famously did after hitting six 3-pointers in the first half of a 1992 NBA Finals game.
Why was McCrorey pleasantly surprised? Faith Simpson.
The reserve guard had just knocked down her third outside jump shot of the second quarter. Her scoring burst helped ignite a 15-0 Lewisville (1-3) run in the second quarter — and it ultimately led to the Lions’ 44-14 win over Great Falls on Tuesday night.
“Well, Faith, she’s been struggling a little bit with her shot, and tonight, everything she put up was in,” McCrorey said postgame. She then shrugged with a smile on her face. “So I was just like, ‘Hey, keep shooting!’”
Simpson finished with eight points and five rebounds.
Great Falls (0-4) scored the first two points of the game and exited the first quarter with the score tied. But then came that second quarter run.
“I said, ‘Girl, you’re shooting the lights out,’” Lewisville senior forward Allie Keels, who led both teams with 14 points, recalled saying to Simpson. “And she was like, ‘I didn’t want to come out of the game.’”
Come the second half, Keels was found on the block and in the high post, and also collected a few offensive rebounds and turned those into points.
She added six rebounds, one steal and one block to her stat line.
“I think we played a lot better,” she said. “We’ve been losing pretty big, so we wanted to come out and play more united. We just talked about posting up big, and trying to be a lot better in the paint.”
When asked how it felt for her to emerge with a win from her last time playing at Great Falls, Keels smiled: “It feels really good to come out on top…
“But it’s bittersweet. I do like playing here. It’s the toughest atmosphere to play in, but it’s always fun.”
This story was originally published December 11, 2019 at 5:09 AM.
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