Lafayette holds on to beat Suwannee
Published 10:05 am Friday, January 19, 2018
- Ylusse Siverain leads the break with Ben Massey and Juantavious Smith.
MAYO, Fla. — The Lafayette Hornets are starting to get past some early-season woes and find different ways to win. Suwannee is still searching for answers late in the season.
Tre’Vontae Clark scored 19 points, Richey James added 11 points and the Hornets held on against a late charge from the Bulldogs for a 62-58 win on Tuesday.
“We’re starting to figure out that it’s going to take all of us,” LHS coach Erin Beach said. “There’s no one person that’s going to get us through this season.”
With the score tied at 54 and 2:30 remaining in the fourth quarter, Lafayette’s Juantavious Smith came up with the play of the game and brought the home crowd to its feet. Smith got a running toward the basket and slammed in a thunderous, one-handed putback dunk.
Not only did the play energize the entire gym, it was the basket that put LHS ahead for good and the start of the Hornets’ 8-4 run to finish.
“That was huge. The kid can jump out of the gym,” Beach said of Smith. “He’s starting to blossom.”
As for the team element Beach spoke about, Lafayette (6-6) had four players score at least nine points. Ylusse Siverian and Ben Massey had nine points apiece while Smith added six.
| Suwannee | 14 | 12 | 14 | 18 | — | 58 |
| Lafayette | 12 | 20 | 14 | 16 | — | 62 |
Lafayette – Clark 16, James 11, Siverain 9, Massey 9, Smith 6, Mercedes 5, Fleming 4, Edwards 2
Suwannee – Johnson 19, Freeman 17, James 6, Ulmer 5, Gardner 4, Baptiste 4, Henry 3
Dequan Johnson scored 19 points and Tyrece Freeman added 17 points, but it wasn’t enough for Suwannee (3-11), which dropped its third straight game.
Johnson and Freeman headed the Bulldogs’ comeback effort. Down 42-30 midway through the third quarter, SHS went on a 24-12 run to get back in the game.
A change in defense also worked for Suwannee.
“We went to man in the fourth quarter. That was the big thing,” Bulldogs coach Jeremy Ulmer said of his team’s best run. “They (Lafayette) weren’t quite ready for it.
“We just couldn’t put the ball in the hole. It’s an endless story with us.”
UP NEXT: Lafayette is back in action tonight at Branford. Suwannee travels to Wakulla on Friday.
