By Terry Boehmker
NKyTribune sports reporter
When your scoring leader limps off the court early in the first quarter and does not return, it tends to have a negative effect on a basketball team’s performance.
But the Conner Cougars didn’t falter after that happened to them Friday and went on to defeat the Ryle Raiders, 71-54, in a boys’ basketball game between 33rd District rivals at Conner.
Even though junior forward Spencer Hemmerich injured his left ankle less than three minutes into the game, Conner took a 25-10 lead in the first quarter and kept the margin in double digits without him.
“We just stayed strong,” Conner senior guard Michael Scott said of the team’s reaction to losing Hemmerich, who had a team-high 20.3 scoring average. “We all knew that we could still win so we just kept playing hard and things turned out our way.”
Scott scored a game-high 22 points, but he’s not the only reason the Cougars won Friday’s home game to bump their record to 6-1. They passed the ball so well on offense that 11 players scored and their pressure defense forced 22 turnovers.
“That’s what I love about this team,” said Conner coach Jim Hicks. “We had two or three guys who normally don’t get to play a lot step up and play really well. It just shows how much they want to do for each other.”
In the first quarter, Conner opened up a 25-10 lead by shooting 61 percent (11 of 18) from the field compared to Ryle’s 36.6 percent (4 of 11). The Raiders committed seven turnovers in that eight-minute period and the Cougars scored off six of them.
“They got after us early and we didn’t match their intensity,” Ryle coach David McFarland said of his team’s shaky start. “We worked on (breaking the press) for two days in practice and knew exactly what they did. It was kind of surprising that it took us a while to settle in against it.”
Conner led by as much as 18 points in the second quarter. The Raiders cut the margin to 51-40 at the end of the third quarter and 62-52 midway through the fourth quarter, but they never couldn’t sustain a rally.
With 3:36 left on the clock, Scott buried a 3-point shot that triggered a final 9-2 run by the Cougars. That basket gave Scott 22 points, five above his season average coming into the game.
“We usually look to Spencer a lot because he can score so easy,” Scott said of his injured teammate. “But we didn’t have him in there so I felt like I needed to do more than I usually do.”
Conner ended up shooting 50.9 percent (27 of 53) for the game. The team’s other double-figure scorers were substitute guard Kyler Padgett with 11 points and starting guard Logan Cook with 10.
Ryle shot 34 percent (15 of 44) from the field while also committing 22 turnovers. Junior guard Aaron O’Hara came off the bench to score a team-high 13 points for the Raiders, who now have a 3-4 record.
Conner won’t play another game until after Christmas, but the players think their 6-1 start puts them among the top 10 teams in the 9th Region after being overlooked in the preseason coaches poll.
“We’ve definitely had a chip on our shoulder,” Scott said. “We felt we were one of the better teams in the region and wanted to prove that we were.”
CONNER 25 15 11 20 — 71
RYLE 10 14 16 14 — 54
CONNER (6-1): Gambrel 1 0 2, Scott 9 3 22, Garnett 2 2 6, Hemmerich 0 2 2, Cook 5 0 10, Craddock 1 0 3, Ostertag 1 0 2, Connley 3 0 6, Padgett 2 7 11, Surprenant 1 1 3, Alimarandi 2 0 4. Totals: 27 15 71.
RYLE (3-4): Owens 1 4 6, Cheesman 2 5 10, Turner 1 4 6, O’Hara 4 5 13, Kirschler 4 0 8, Driscoll 0 4 4, Webster 2 1 3, Rankin 1 0 2. Totals: 15 23 54.
Three-pointers: C – Scott, Craddock. R – Cheesman.