By Erik Harris
HOOVER – Hewitt-Trussville struggled in the paint to lose its Class 7A, Region 6 opener 81-58 at No. 5 Spain Park on Tuesday night.
“As a whole, I’m down a little bit, but not much,” said Hewitt-Trussville head coach Mike Dutton. “I’m encouraged with some of our guys’ effort and our competitiveness for the entire game.”
Jaguars center Austin Wiley dominated on both ends of the floor. He scored a game-high 19 points and only needed first-half minutes to do so.
Those in the Spain Park backcourt fed the ball to Wiley often in the first half. One of two things happened once he had the ball in the paint: he scored or he went to the free throw line, where he went 7-for-11.
Hewitt-Trussville sophomore guard Harrison Stanley rises for a 3-pointer earlier this season.
file photo by Ron Burkett
“Wiley is a tremendous player,” Dutton said. “If he gets the ball down deep in the paint, it’s over. He’s a tremendous talent and so is (Jamal Johnson).”
There was little pressure on any of those attempts as the Jaguars took advantage of numerous Husky turnovers early, jumping out to an 18-2 lead four minutes into the contest.
A pair of Harrison Stanley 3-pointers in the final minute of the quarter slimmed the deficit to 12 going into the second. He struck once more, this time from the baseline with four minutes left in the half, but the make did little to a 41-19 score.
With Wiley working inside, the visitors opted to take their offensive game outside for much of the game. Hewitt-Trussville attempted nearly twice as many shots from behind the arc as they did inside of it.
“Our plan was to try to go early inside and we weren’t having a lot of success with that so we just decided to knock down as many threes as we could,” Dutton said.
The Huskies went 12-of-40 from deep and 10-of-23 from inside. Along with Stanley’s three makes, Matthew Hicks shot well on four of his 3-pointers and freshman Sean Elmore added two makes of his own.
Hewitt-Trussville will be back in region action on Friday night at Vestavia Hills.
