EDINBURGH — The defense of Edinburgh had no answer for Monrovia guard Luke Smith.
Smith was hitting on all cylinders Monday night. He knocked down six 3-pointers en route to 32 points to lead the Bulldogs to a 64-53 boys basketball win against the Lancers.
As hot as Smith was from the field, Edinburgh had a great shot at winning the game. Trailing only 45-44 at the beginning of the fourth quarter, its chance quickly vanished when Monrovia went on a 10-1 run in the span of a couple minutes to put the game away.
“We concentrated our defensive effort on (Smith),” Edinburgh coach Drew Glentzer said. “He hit a lot of tough shots. We did shut down their other leading scorer (Luke Seber). We knew that those two kids would be their scorers.”
The Bulldogs (3-3) decided to feed the ball inside and use their height to their advantage in the first quarter. The Lancers (1-7) found a way to contain it and only found themselves down 15-14 after the first eight minutes.
“We competed well on the glass, but I knew we were going to get outrebounded, but with our hustle and how hard we played, we narrowed that gap,” Glentzer said.
A 3-pointer by Addison Lollar and a Justin Fosskuhl basket put Edinburgh out in front 22-20 in the second quarter. But Smith finally got going, scoring 10 of the next 12 Monrovia points for a 32-25 halftime lead.
The Lancers could not string together a big run, with the teams trading baskets in the third quarter. Lollar put up a 3 that rattled and spun around the rim and slowly dropped through the net right before time expired to cut the lead to 45-44, setting up the Bulldogs’ fourth quarter run.
“I thought if we could get the lead, we can win the game because I thought we could spread them out,” Glentzer said. “We never got to that point. I was proud of our effort, and I thought we played hard. Tip your hat off to how well (Smith) shot during the game.”
Between the middle of the second quarter and near the end of the fourth quarter, Monrovia only had two players score — Smith and Max Newman, who finished with 17 points.
Lollar had a perfect night of shooting beyond the arc, knocking down seven triples to lead Edinburgh with 21 points. Fosskuhl added 16 points, and Coltan Henderson and Parker Bryant each scored seven.
