There just must be something about those blue uniforms that affects the shooting of the UHA Blazers. A more than six minute scoring drought in the second quarter was too much for University Heights to overcome, as the Blazers fell to Lexington Christian 63-51 in the opening round of the Chad Gardner Law King of the Bluegrass at Fairdale High School.
Unlike last year’s game at the All A Classic State Tournament, where UHA was knocked out of the game early, in this matchup the Blazers were never completely out of the contest, but could just not get a string of things to go there way at any one point in time, once they were behind. Either there would be a missed basket at a big moment; LCA would get a crucial putback, or the Eagles would find a shooter clear for an open three in the corner.
LCA opened the game on a 7-2 spurt, but UHA came right back to take a 9-7 lead of its own. The back and forth continued for the rest of the quarter, with LCA holding to a narrow one point lead when the quarter came to an end.
Then came the second quarter, and with it, the turning point of the game. UHA went 6:45 without a point, while the Eagles went on a 14-0 run to blow the lead out to 26-11. The Blazers managed a late five point rally to make it 26-16. The Blazers managed to trail by only ten, despite shooting 31.8-percent in the first half and being out rebounded 20-8.
In the third quarter, LCA used a ball control offense to keep the Blazers at arm’s length. A late 3-pointer by Zeke Grier pushed the Eagles’ lead to 46-33 entering the 4th quarter.
The Blazers would mount a serious push in the 4th. With Coach Grant Shouse going to a small, trapping lineup, UHA began to create turnovers that led to points. The Blazers cut the lead to 51-46 with 4:30 to go, and had the ball. However, after not drawing a foul call on a move to the basket, UHA’s KyKy Tandy was assessed a technical foul, and LCA went on an 8-1 run to salt the game away.
Tandy was the only Blazer to reach double figures with 19. Taquan Hollowell had 9, while Drew McGowan added 8.
Kyle Rode was a force for LCA, scoring 27 points and snagging 15 rebounds.
The loss, which was the first for UHA, drops the Blazers to 7-1 on the season, and moves UHA into the consolation bracket, where they will take on LaRue County Friday night at 9:00pm EST.
