At the end of the third quarter, Heritage Academy trailed West Memphis Christian School (Arkansas) 41-32, getting worked on the glass and unable to contend against the fast offense of the Black Knights.
The Patriots needed a surge on Tuesday afternoon and fast.
It was provided by junior Jack Ketchum, who caught fire in the final eight minutes of play, knocking down four 3-pointers, including several big ones late in the game.
Heritage Academy erased the nine-point deficit by the final two minutes of the game, and the 3s continued to rain down for the Patriots (1-2), who defeated the Black Knights, 53-48.
“We just finally started making shots,” Ketchum said. “Teammates were getting me open. Good screens and play calls by the coach, I was just getting wide-open looks.”
Ketchum scored 14 of his game-high 21 points in the fourth quarter and 19 of those 21 in the second half alone, hitting five 3s in the half as well.
He was one of two Heritage Academy players who went on to score in double figures in the game. Spencer Singley added 10 points for the Patriots.
The Pats needed some big-time production in the final quarter of the game, and their 21-point fourth quarter did just that, outscoring West Memphis Christian 21-7 in the quarter.
“It really came down to our effort,” Heritage Academy coach Zach Allison said. “We play hard at moments or at times, but we’ve been talking about needing to have that for 32 minutes. That fourth quarter, it came down to us moving the basketball and being unselfish.”
“When we do that, I think we can be a decent team, and when we start to defend at the level, hopefully, that we’ll be at in a couple months.”
This is a team that’s had just five practice days this season and a number of players out due to crossover between football and basketball.
That’s kept the Pats from being able to practice and play as a full team until now, and slowly but surely, they’re starting to click.
It definitely took some time on Tuesday for Heritage Academy to click because the Black Knights had control of much of the game, led by Amare Foreman, who scored 13 of WMCS’s 16 points in the first quarter and finished with a team-high 16 points overall.
Heritage Academy was able to weather the storm, start exploiting the Knights’ weaknesses and capitalize on mistakes.
“Our kids battled,” Allison said. “That was the biggest thing. We had played from behind all game, and being able to battle there at the end and get some stops together, when we were able to get stops, that catapulted our offense, which was good.”
Things definitely didn’t end as smoothly as the Patriots would have wanted, missing the front end of three consecutive one-and-ones to give the Black Knights more and more chances.
In the end, the Pats got a much-needed steal with less than a minute left and retained the ball. West Memphis Christian had one final chance to tie the game at 51-51 as Ontarious Odom took a 3 from the top of the key.
Odom airballed the shot, and the Black Knights fouled Ketchum, who came down and redeemed himself, making both free throws to secure Heritage Academy’s first win of the season.
“We’ve only had five days of practice so far, and I think this is our third game in four days,” Ketchum said. “We’re going to get a lot better moving forward and get a lot more wins.”
Heritage Academy takes a much-needed Thanksgiving break before facing Tishomingo County on the road at 7:45 p.m. Tuesday.
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