By Ben Spector
SALISBURY- After a 3-3 start to the season, Dr. Henry A Wise Jr. Pumas head coach Rob Garner felt as if some of the players in his starting lineup had become complacent and that his starting lineup needed a shake-up heading into their DMVelite Showcase Contest at the 2015 Governor’s Challenge.
When asked if it was a wake-up call, Garner was honest about the changes.
“You could call it that,” said Garner. “We felt we needed to make some adjustments coming into the game.”
Whatever it was, the Pumas gladly answered it rolling to an easy 70-48 win over the Kent County Trojans after a close first quarter.
The Pumas and the Trojans started off the 1st quarter with both teams trading blows and the Trojans coming out to a surprising, early lead on the back of Shemar Turner and Hunter Dierking.
With, most of the Pumas usual starters on the bench the Trojans attacked inside the paint and outside the arc in the early minutes taking an 8-5 lead which they would extend until the end of the 1st quarter, up 13-10.
Kent County would hold the lead into the 2nd quarter with Turner scoring 4 of the Trojans first 6 in the 2nd quarter but from there the Pumas would begin to slowly take over.
Wise junior guard Michael Speight hit a three-pointer with 4:53 left in the 2nd quarter to tie the game up at 19. 1:15 later Speight would hit another three to give the Pumas a 22-19 lead and from there they would never look back.
Speight’s back-to-back three-pointers were part of a stretch of 9 straight points for the Pumas guard and would be part of a 20-2 Pumas run to end the second quarter in which Speight scored 11.
The Pumas headed into the break ahead by 14 points but after the break they expanded on their lead by going on a 9-4 run to extend the lead to 20 and push the Trojans out of contention. The Pumas used a good shooting night to their advantage as the Pumas shot 51.7% from inside the arc and 54.5% from outside the arc.
Speight was just one of the hot shooters as he shot 50% from inside the arc and 66.7% from outside the arc. The Pumas also pounded the glass aggressively and in that aspect, Speight had some help from Wise forwards Barnes Darron and Saiquan Jamison who both had 8 rebounds for the Pumas, who out rebounded Kent County 44-19.
“We just wanted to come out and play hard, play together as a team,” said Speight whose 17 points was all the more impressive considering he only played in just half of the game.
Tying in with the rebounding was the second chance points, in which Wise led 22-6, as the Pumas used their heavy advantage on the boards to capitalize on their 20 offensive rebounds.
For Kent County, they knew it would be uphill sledding for most of the way as they knew it would be tough to beat a Wise team that comes from a school that is almost triple its size.
Still, there were positives to be taken from the game for the Trojans.
“I explained to the team, if we get a win kudos to us,” said Kent County head coach Sobaye Scott. “I wanted them to see no matter where you’re from you can compete. We did that, we competed in the 1st quarter.”
One of the bright spots for the Trojans was Turner who had 22 points, a team-high for the Trojans and made some nice moves inside the paint for Kent County.
For Wise, it was the win they were looking for though as they got a chance to respond from the wake-up call that Garner had sent out to the team.
Heading into the next game against West Charlotte, one of the top teams in the tournament the Pumas will get a chance to answer their coaches calls in Salisbury one more time, hopefully for the Pumas with the same response.
Follow Ben Spector on Twitter @bspec21. Follow Maryland Sports Access on Twitter @MDSportsAccess.
