The Newtown-Harris Tigers traveled to Mercer Thursday night for HDC matchups with the Cardinals. The Tigers were able to come away with the sweep, winning the girls game 34-28 and the boys game 83-53.
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Girls
The girls contest was a close one at the beginning with both teams ,playing solid defense. After two minutes of play the game, was tied at 2-2. The Lady Tigers made a small run in the final six minutes of the first quarter to gain a 12-5 edge on the Lady Cardinals.
Mercer wasn’t about to go down easy, however. In the second quarter, Mercer roared back with a 8-4 run, cutting the Lady Tigers’ lead to 16-13. Newtown struggled with shooting in the second quarter, connecting on just one of its 11 shots from the floor.
Newtown rebounded in the third quarter, pushing the lead to 24-17 behind better shooting.
Mercer made one last run in the final quarter. Newtown gave the Lady Cardinals several opportunities, missing 14 of its final 15 free throws. Mercer could not take advantage, however, turning the ball over several times in the waning minutes, often times before the Lady Cardinals could even cross the half court line. Newtown held on in the end.
Newtown was led by Jessica Huffman, who had a team-high 11 points. Jessica Coon led Mercer with nine points.
Newtown remained unbeaten in conference play, going to 4-0 with an overall record of 8-1.
Mercer, meanwhile, fell to 1-4 overall and 1-2 in HDC play.
Boys
While the girls’ game got off to a slow start, the boys’ game started very quickly, with both squads running the floor. Scoring came fast and furious, with both teams lighting up the scoreboard. Newtown was firing on all cylinders, but strong post play by Mercer’s Ryan Stark kept the Cardinals in the contest. When the first quarter came to a close, Newtown held a slim 20-14 advantage.
Newtown slowly began to overpower the Cardinals in the second quarter due to excellent ball movement and solid perimeter shooting. At halftime, Newtown had extended its lead to 46-24.
Mercer opened the third quarter on a scoring run. The Cardinals got good shooting from Tim Bom-gardner, allowing Mercer to start climbing back into the game. KJ Cool was too much for the Cardinals to handle, however. His solid shooting, passing and defense in the late stages of the third quarter ended Mercer’s threat. With a quarter to play, Newtown held a 67-48 lead.
Newtown got good play from Tyler Busick and Justin Ralls in the fourth quarter, allowing the Tigers to outscore Mercer 16-4 in the final eight minutes on their way to the win.
Newtown was led by Cool, who scored a game-high 22 points. T. J. Ireland added 13 points and Tyler Busick and Canaan Fairley also hit double-figures, scoring 12 and 10 points respectively. The Tigers had 10 different players score points in the game.
Mercer was led by Bomgardner, who poured in a team-high 18 points. Stark also finished with a big game, scoring 16. Colton Miller rounded out the Cardinals double-digit scorers with 11 points.
Newtown remained undefeated on the year, moving to 9-0 and 3-0 in HDC action.
Mercer dropped to 2-3 on the year and is now 1-2 in HDC play.
Both Mercer and Newtown will be back in action in next week’s NCMC Holiday Shoot-Out at the Ketcham Community Center in Trenton.
Mercer will be in action on Friday, Dec. 28, with the girls playing Polo at 9 a.m. and the boys playing Macon County at 10:30 a.m.
Newtown will hit the court on Saturday, Dec. 29, with the girls playing Princeton at 9 a.m. and boys battling Braymer at 8:30 p.m.