Scotlandville used a fairly simple formula to take a 68-52 win over Capitol Academy on Tuesday night: jump out to an early lead, hold off a second-half surge and go home with a victory. "They jumped all over us early on," Capitol coach Don Green said. "We didn't really see it coming. We came out slow and they hit a couple of threes in the beginning. "We don't have any team chemistry yet, and we've only had three practices with our full team, but give Scotlandville credit. They've got a good team."
The Hornets scored the first 10 points of the game and broke out to a 23-12 lead at the end of the first quarter. The Hornets' three starting sophomores led the charge as Thaddeus Fortune had two 3-pointers and Deshawn Washington one, while Zarif Brazil added six points and three rebounds as an inside presence.
JJ Thomas, the only senior in the starting lineup, added five first-quarter points.
Capitol got a little more offense going in the second quarter, but Thomas and Brazil dominated inside and Scotlandville stretched their halftime lead to 44-28.
"Mixing the younger players into the lineup is kind of like mixing gumbo," Scotlandville coach Carlos Sample.
"They played in spots last year but not for any length of time. Zarif (Brazil) especially has dedicated himself to getting better, and they all work hard."
Scotlandville suffered through a sluggish third quarter, scoring only 10 points, but the Lions didn't do much better, scoring 12. At one point they cut the lead to 11 at 47-36 but couldn't pull any closer.
Capitol made one more run in the fourth quarter, pulling within 10 at 58-48 with 4:42 left , but Brazil dropped in a free throw, and Travis Lee and Levi Wright hit driving layups to stretch the lead back to 15 and squelch the rally.
"Our intensity level went down after we got off to a pretty good start," Sample said. "We won, but we didn't play our best.
"If we're going to get into the elite class, up there with teams like Glen Oaks and Christian Life, we're going to have to play 32 minutes of Basketball every night."
Part of Scotlandville's advantage came in the turnover differential as Capitol turned the ball over 16 times while the Hornets had only eight turnovers, including only three in the first half.
Wright led Scotlandville's five double-figure scorers with 16 points, while Thomas finished with 15, Brazil with 12 and Fortune 11.
"We had a good team effort tonight," Sample said. "Travis (Lee) also came in and did some things for us without scoring a lot.
Lee was a sparkplug off the bench for the Hornets , scoring all five of his points in the fourth quarter when Capitol was closing the gap.
Michael Sibley led Capitol's scoring with 16 points while Reggie Stansberry added 11.
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