BERLIN- Stephen Decatur’s boys’ varsity basketball team got its quest for a return to the state championship off to a good start on Tuesday with a 77-43 rout of visiting Atholton in the 3A-East Section II semifinals.
The top-seeded Seahawks wasted no time jumping all over fifth-seeded Atholton at home on Tuesday, scoring early and often to build a quick early lead. Atholton, which reached the Section II semifinals by virtue of a 67-63 win over Bennett in the first round last week, appeared out of sorts and perhaps a little shell-shocked by the big, raucous home crowd and quickly fell behind by double-digits in the first quarter.
Just a minute into the first quarter, Decatur’s Tahjeem Woodland scored a layup and was fouled, completing the three-point play for an early 3-0 lead. Seconds later, Ja’Ron Johnson nailed a long three-pointer to push the lead to 6-0. Decatur’s Kevon Voyles made a steal and did not finish the fast break layup, but Keve Aluma followed and jammed home the rebound to extend the lead to 10-0. After Gary Briddell converted a nice reverse layup on a perfect assist from Voyles to push the lead to 12-0 with just over four minutes left in the period, Atholton called a timeout in an effort to settled things down.
With just over three minutes left in the first, Aluma went down with an ankle injury under the basket and the crowd was hushed as he limped from the floor. Aluma did return briefly after getting treatment, but was removed from the game and did not return as the Seahawks continued to grow their lead. Aluma sat on the bench with his ankle wrapped in ice for the rest of the contest and the severity of the injury is not known although he did return to play almost immediately after and was likely left out of the rest of the game for precautionary reasons.
Aluma was replaced by Churchill Bounds, who quickly nailed a jumper to improve Decatur’s lead to 14-1. A Voyles three-pointer after a steal, followed by a layup by Briddell pushed the Decatur lead to 19-1 with just over a minute remaining in the first. Atholton scored its first field goal just before the end of the first quarter to cut the lead to 21-4.
With the big early lead, Coach B.J. Johnson went to his bench early and often in the second and got quality minutes from the reserves. Mihail Beja hit a three-pointer to extend the lead to 24-4. After an Atholton cut the lead to 26-9, Will Sass converted a layup to extend the lead to 28-9. Matt Kristick added a layup to push the lead to 30-11 and a layup by Beja made it 32-11. Briddell hit a jumper at the buzzer to send the Seahawks into the locker room with a 35-12 halftime lead.
Throughout the third, the Seahawks continued to expand its lead and entered the third quarter ahead, 60-26. The two teams played fairly evenly in mop-up time during the fourth and Decatur advanced with the 77-43 win. The Seahawks played second-seeded Hammond in the sectional final on Thursday in a game played too late to be included in this edition.
