Great Crossing Improves to 7-1 After Outlasting Bryan Station 71-65
Bryan Station High School hosted the Vince Dawson and Malachi Moreno show Tuesday night. Dawson scored 30 points while Moreno dropped 16 points and 17 rebounds en route to Great Crossing’s 71-65 victory over the Defenders.
“[Dawson] was an absolute stud … he made a couple of nice plays,” Great Crossing head coach Steve Page said. “Malachi [Moreno] dominated the glass and for us—the biggest part was we made our free throws.”
The win also marked the first time the Warhawks have ever defeated Bryan Station in their short three-year history.
“I couldn’t be more proud,” Page said. “We feel like we should be 8-0, but we let one get away there, but that’s okay. It’s a growing experience for those young kids.”
First Quarter: Great Crossing 16, Bryan Station 12
Everything went Great Crossing’s way in the first five minutes; fastbreaks, offensive rebounds, forcing bad shots off great defensive possessions. The Warhawks forced Bryan Station to call a timeout with three minutes left in the opening quarter after gaining a 13-5 lead over the Defenders.
A 7-2 run from Bryan Station cut the game to three points thanks to reserves Trenton Cutwright and Ethan Dunn. Despite the run, Station remained behind four points after eight minutes of play.
Halftime: Great Crossing 38, Bryan Station 31
Bryan Station came out of the second quarter guns blazing. Thanks to J’Marious Lindsay, who slammed a tomahawk into the basket over a Great Crossing defender, he brought the entire arena to their feet trying to stir a Defender comeback.
“Credit to Lindsay, he played really well,” Moreno said. “Something I didn’t realize is that when they have like a good play, their crowd goes crazy and they feed into it, they’ll get back on defense.”
Keeping that defensive intensity was exactly what Station did throughout the rest of the quarter.
Lindsay single-handedly kept his team in the game. Despite trailing by seven points or less the entire quarter, Station tied the game twice, but never took the lead. The team-wide production just wasn’t there.
Lindsay went into the locker room with 13 points. Cutwright had eight on 2-8 shooting—no other Defender had more than four points. As a team, Bryan Station shot 12-34 from the field and 3-11 from deep.
For Great Crossing, they were led by Dawson’s 14 points on 6-7 shooting while Gage Richardson was a perfect 2-2 from deep. 6-foot-10 freshman Moreno, who ranks No. 2 in KHSAA with 14 rebounds per game, had 10 at the break with four points.
“The ball was just going in the hoop and coach [Page] told me to keep shooting, so I just kept shooting,” Dawson said.
Third Quarter: Great Crossing 52, Bryan Station 48
Great Crossing opened the quarter notching their biggest lead of the night at nine. Bryan Station would cut the lead down to three after a put-back from Bless Kamuena before a steal from Cutwright tied the game at 48 two possessions later.
The tie didn’t last very long, however, as Moreno knocked down a go-ahead bucket plus the foul to regain the lead, where the score would stay heading into the final period.
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“His offensive game is still not caught up with his defense and rebounding but my gosh, when he gets in there, he’s got those long arms, he makes it so difficult and allows us to pressure the ball a little bit more because [the defender] comes out and then his rebounding—he’s such a good kid that’s that’s the best part about him,” Page said about Moreno.
FINAL: Great Crossing 71, Bryan Station 65
A quick 8-2 run in the first three minutes of the quarter gave Bryan Station their first lead of the night after Lindsay found Daeveon Adams wide open down the court.
A quick put-back layup from Moreno followed by a fastbreak score from Dawson broke the tie to give Great Crossing a 62-58 lead with under two minutes remaining.
“We just realized that we needed to play stronger and play more as a team,” Moreno said about halting the Station run. “[We knew] we could pull it out for the win.”
Station had a chance to cut the lead to one possession, but another rebound was hauled in by Moreno, which led to an outlet pass to Dawson for the basket and foul, sealing the game with 1:09 remaining.
While Dawson and Moreno earned their keep Tuesday night, Gage Richardson and Junius Burrell combined for 18 points as well. The Warhawks shot 27-58 (47 percent) from the field, 3-8 (38 percent) from three and 14-20 (70 percent) from the line on the night.
Lindsay finished with 21 points for Station and was complemented by Cutwright and Kamuena’s 14 and 13 points, respectively. The Defenders shots 26-71 (37 percent) from the floor as a team—those empty possessions are a major reason the outcome swayed in favor of the Warhawks.
Great Crossing’s next matchup will be in the White, Greer & Maggard Holiday Classic against No. 1 Ballard at Lexington Catholic at 3 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 26.
“It will definitely make us tougher, and we will learn in that game to play more as a team if we want to compete with Ballard,” Moreno said. “My matchup and Maker Bar, it’s going to be good. It’s going to be physical and I just hope for the best for me and my team.”
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