Lansdowne got 24 points and seven steals from sophomore Trevor Howard and broke open an eight-point game late in the first quarter with a 20-0 run on the way to a convincing 73-40 victory over visiting Carver A&T on Wednesday night.
The Vikings improved to 2-2, while the Wildcats dropped to 0-3.
Lansdowne opened the scoring seven seconds after the opening jump when Ryan Kehoe grabbed the tap and raced to the basket before feeding Justin Myers for a quick layup. It was the start of a huge first quarter in which the Vikings built a 31-13 lead. Myers had eight points, Chase Phillips had nine and Howard had 10 in the first quarter alone.
The Vikings’ run began after a free throw by Joshua Musaazi with 1:39 left in the first quarter. Carver didn’t score for nearly eight minutes after that and committed 21 turnovers in the first half. Howard had six steals in the second quarter.
“Our energy went up more and we played better defense,” Howard said. “I was just reading [the passes].”
Howard and Phillips had two 3-pointers and Topaz Norris came off the bench and hit a triple and scored nine of his 11 points in the half.
“We made the smart pass. We made the extra pass a couple times and got some good looks. If we can get the outside shot to fall I like our chances,” Lansdowne coach Steve Coursey said. “It’s just a matter of being consistent and our guards bringing us big energy whether it’s on defense or pushing the ball on the break it definitely changes things.”
Defense aside, Coursey was really impressed with the 31-point quarter.
“We were well overdue for that, so it was beautiful to see that,” he said. “We have big potential to do that in runs and spurts; we just haven’t sustained it.”
“I think we just needed to work as a team more and more people needed to score,” Howard said.
Carver coach Walter Lawson cited his team’s lack of experience for the first-half collapse.
“It looked like a good game, but what happened was we’re young and they turned the ball over a lot. So I’m trying to get them to be patient enough where we can run our sets because we are still not running them,” he said. “It’s definitely a work in progress. We are going to get better as the year goes on.”
Carver trailed, 48-20, at halftime and played the Viking even in the third quarter, thanks to two 3-point plays by Hardy Jaiden. However, the Wildcats trailed 61-33 after three and Jaiden fouled out with just over a minute left.
Jaiden, a sophomore, and Kai Stewart, a freshman, led the Wildcats with 11 points each. Carver started two sophomores, a freshman and junior, along with senior Nikola Qirjako (five points).
“They played hard, I’ll give them that. It was good to see,” Lawson said. “Everybody wants that as a coach as long as you get 100% effort, you can’t complain.”
Meanwhile, Coursey is also happy with his young team which includes sophomores Howard and Norris and junior point guard Kehoe in key roles and another injured sophomore who is projected to be a starter.
“I’m excited, we are young and it just shows that we are young at times,” Coursey said.
But watching the 6-foot-2 Howard develop will make the youthful mistakes easier to stomach.
“Where he goes is where we go. Honestly, he gives energy, scoring, rebounds, defense and even that dunk gets us started,” Coursey said.
Howard’s second dunk of the season came with 55 seconds left in the first quarter and the Vikings scored 13 straight points after it.
“He’s exciting to watch and he’s only a sophomore so it’s a good feeling to have,” Coursey said.
L-Trevor Howard 24, Chase Phillips 12, Topaz Horis 11, Justin Myers 8, Thomas Jackson 5, Khiyon Rose 4, Josh Rogers 3, Ryan Kehoe 2, Mike Lambert 2, Malike Land 2; C-Kai Stewart 11, Hardy Jaiden 11, Ryan Wade 7, Jordan Lyde 5, Nikol Qirjako 5, Joshua Musaazi 1.
Halftime: 48-20 L
