By Johnny Sanders, Sports Editor
BIRMINGHAM – Hewitt left the confines of their own city on Tuesday night and came away just one point shy of continuing their winning ways in a hard-fought loss to Oak Mountain 63-62.
“Obviously that was a tough one to not finish,” said Hewitt coach Jeremy Monceaux. “I thought the game itself was a very intense, high-level basketball game and we had some segments of it where we played very well.”
Oak Mountain built a small lead in the first quarter by outscoring Hewitt 17-4. For the Huskies, Reid Stodghill had 4 points while Legion Gaston and Braxton Brown followed with 3 points each.
Ray Rolley would get rolling with 10 points in the second, paired with 10 more from teammate Emeka Anwah to give win the quarter for the Huskies 20-15. Hewitt would head into the locker room with a 2-point lead, 34-32.
Hewitt would win the third quarter as well, outscoring Oak Mountain 21-17. Rolley and Gaston put up 6 points each in the period while Anwah followed closely behind with 5 of his own to put the Huskies up by a score of 55-49 heading into the final stanza of the game.
Oak Mountain didn’t necessarily shoot the lights out in the fourth quarter, but they did find a way to contain Rolley and company, holding Hewitt to just 7 points in the quarter, while scoring 14 of their own to pull out the one-point victory over the Huskies.
Hewitt’s leading scorers on the night were Ray Rolley with 18 points, Emeka Anwah with 17 and Legion Gaston with 11.
“I think the game was played at the pace they wanted to play. Their pressure took us out of a good flow on offense and we just had a few misfires late that you can’t have when trying to get an area win on the road,” said Coach Monceaux. “But our kids played really hard. We had our chances and we are still learning to win. This game could be really beneficial for us down the road. The road doesn’t get easier and we need to learn from this and get back to work.”