By Johnny Sanders, Sports Editor
TRUSSVILLE – A fast start from the Huskies was not enough to get the win on Tuesday night at Bryant Bank Arena. Hewitt was unable to finish, leading 5-point area loss to the visiting Oak Mountain Eagles.
The Huskies came out of the gate with some smothering defense and a pretty good quarter scoring. The Eagles only managed a lowly 4 points against the Hewitt defense while allowing the Huskies to put up 15. Reid Stodghill would lead the home team with 7 of the 15 on the quarter and Emekah Anwah added 4.
The Huskies continued to execute pretty well on the offensive side of the ball in the second, scoring 12 points; however, on the defensive side of the ball, they weren’t so effective. Hewitt allowed Oak Mountain to score 18 in the quarter, cutting the 11-point first quarter lead to 5-point lead heading into the half, 27-22. Stodghill added another 4 to his total on the night with Legion Gaston adding 3 points in the quarter.
Coming out of the locker room, the Huskies seemed to regroup and, behind the 6 points from Karnell Smith and 4 from Anwah, they put up 14 points. On defense, they tightened up a little bit and allowed just 12 points from the Eagles, making it a 7-point lead headed into the fourth, 41-34.
This is where the Huskies would seem to self-destruct. Reid Stodghill would be the only player to score in the quarter and his only points would be 2 free-throws. On the defensive side, Hewitt allowed Oak Mountain to score 14 points to pick up the big win on the Huskies’ own floor. 48-43 would be the final.
Reid Stodghill had a really good night, scoring 13 points to go with 10 from Karnell Smith and 9 from Emekah Anwah.
“We continue to struggle closing out games against good teams. That’s 5 times this season that we have had a lead late in the fourth quarter and have not been able to close out the game,” said Hewitt Coach Jeremy Monceaux. “I thought our kids played really hard. They held an Oak Mountain team that scores at a pretty high clip under 50 points and even dominated segments of the game. But when the game got tight down the stretch, they were just the tougher team and we as a team and staff need to figure out how to get that fixed pretty quickly.”
The loss drops Hewitt to 17-9 overall and 2-3 in the area. Friday night, the Huskies welcome 7th-ranked Spain Park into The Bank for a key game, their final area game of the season. The last time these two played, the Jaguars beat Hewitt 56-36, so you know revenge will be on the Huskies’ minds Friday night.