FAIRLAND — Hauser and Triton Central played close down the stretch, but an early run in the fourth quarter by the Tigers and a couple bad possessions from the Jets made Hauser play catch-up the rest of the way in a 91-89 defeat.
The Jets had pretty good production offensively, but it was their defensive effort that left coach Nate Cangany disappointed.
“Our defense wasn’t very good tonight,” Cangany said. “(The Tigers’ Wyatt) Felling is a really good player. We felt like in the first half, we let him get going a little too early. I think that rim looked huge to him. It felt like everything was going in for him, but we have to be a more defensive team. We didn’t have guys helping on screens and playing like ‘If my guys doesn’t score, we’re good.’ That’s not how basketball works. You have to play team-defense.”
Felling was hard for the Hauser defense to stop in the first quarter, as well as the whole game. He scored 19 points in the first half and poured in a game-high 42 points.
Triton Central (9-13) looked to be running away early in the second leading 33-28, until the Jets (9-13) went on a 12-3 run to take a 40-36 lead. The Tigers would come back to tie the game at 44-44 at halftime.
Triton Central built a 56-50 cushion midway through the third quarter, but then Hauser came back with a 9-0 run to lead 59-56. The Tigers came back to tie the game at 62-62 heading into the fourth quarter.
The Jets led 69-67 early in the fourth, but then Triton Central scored six straight points to lead 73-69. Hauser couldn’t string an offensive run the rest of the way because it was unable to make key stops defensively down the stretch.
Will Trotter finished the game with a team-high 28 points, and Jackson Paradise added 25 for the Jets.
“Jackson was really good for us. He had 23 through three quarters, and I felt like he got us going early,” Cangany said. “Will is a good player and is going to get his. In the second half when (Triton Central) was scoring, we had a few bad possessions. When you have a bad offensive possessions and a bad defensive possessions and doing that a couple times in a row, that happened to us too many times in the second half.”
