Spartans all business in win versus Warriors
KNOXVILLE — Webb School of Knoxville’s boys basketball team approached its Division II-A game against Christian Academy of Knoxville as it attacks every game. The plan yielded some positive results.
“We want to play our game. We want to play good defense and we want to play together as a team,” said Spartans guard Chase Ridenour, who scored 19 points in Webb’s 65-48 victory over the Warriors Friday night, Jan. 12, at CAK.
“Before the game we talked and we emphasized defense and coach [Ricky Norris] told us to be mature and show that we’re disciplined on defense. We wanted to play hard and play for each other,” he added.
The Spartans (17-3 overall, 3-0 in Division II-A) did just that and they were able to take control of the contest early.
CAK (7-11, 1-2) had trouble with the Spartans defense throughout the game according to Warriors head coach Shane Wells, who noted that Ridenour’s offensive output was a big difference in the game.
“They’re really talented. They’re the best team that we’ll see all year,” Wells said. “We all knew that Chase was going to get hot at some point.
“We just didn’t know when that was going to be.”
Myles Rasnick scored nine of his 17 points over the first 16 minutes for Webb. Tariq Daughton added nine points while Charlie Wyrick finished with five.
“I think, for us, it all starts on the defensive end of the floor,” Norris said. “Our guys did a good job of playing defense when we weren’t making shots.
“Our kids did a good job guarding all over the floor when we were having trouble hitting shots. We continued to play defense after we started hitting both our inside and outside shots,” he added.
The Spartans would withstand a third-quarter run from the Warriors, who trimmed Webb’s lead to 36-27 after junior forward Turner Heitzman scored a basket with five minutes left in the period.
The threat was soon thwarted as the Spartans used a 12-5 surge of their own to expand their lead to 48-32 by the end of the frame.
Luke Etherton led CAK with 14 points. Jason Ozment added nine and Heitzman finished with six.
