CARTERSVILLE – The West Hall Spartans had trouble finding a rhythm Thursday night as they fell to Region 5-4A No. 2 seed Cartersville 83-55 in the second round of the Class 4A playoffs.
“It wasn’t a good rhythm from the get-go,” West Hall coach Bobby Pless said. “It just had that feel that you know, we weren’t getting good ball reversals, movement and weren’t getting good rotations defensively.”
Cartersville (17-13) had no trouble finding its rhythm in the opening two minutes of the battle jumping out to a quick 9-0 advantage.
A quick time out by Pless seemed to calm the Spartans down a bit. Sawyer Passmore and Braden Martin came out of the break like wild horses, leading an 8-0 spurt to close the game to 9-8 with 5:22 to go. But, the one-point deficit was as close as the Spartans would get for the rest of the night.
Passmore ended the night with a team-high 20 points for the Spartans and Martin poured in 17 points.
Cartersville controlled the entire game, from the boards, the transition game and on defense, shutting down West Hall’s leading scorer Noah Edmondson, who finished with 9 points.
“They did a good job of rushing Noah and Braden tonight,” Pless said. “They gave us trouble on the boards and we just didn’t shoot the ball well.”
Cartersville pushed its lead up to 19-9 by the end of the first quarter and extended to a 23-point advantage by the end of the first half, 43-20. Issac Gridley was a force in the paint, finishing the night with a game-high 26 points for the Purple Hurricanes.
“Yeah, 23 (Gridley) really hurt us tonight inside,” Pless said. "But, in the second quarter, we just couldn’t get anything substantial on offense. I thought we had some good looks, but we were a little hesitant."
West Hall’s looks were good for the most part, getting the ball to float through the net was a different story. And there were turnovers – a few – that Cartersville cashed in for buckets. The Canes’ stingy defense played in tight and in the passing lanes most of the game, forcing Spartan turnovers and transition baskets for Cartersville.
In the third quarter and early fourth, the Spartans try to march back in the game. Martin ripped off 12 points and Edmondson found a short rhythm from the 3-point line. The Spartans outpaced Cartersville 20-14 in the third and cut the lead to 17 points, 57-40 early in the fourth.
“I thought we fought and, at least, traded baskets with them in the third quarter,” Pless said. “But, we never could get anything else going.”
Austin Cauffman, Dyer and Gridley quieted the Spartans again, however, leading a 13-0 charge with 5:47 left that ended with a Cauffman 3-pointer to push the lead up 30 points, 70-40, the largest lead at the time.
“The rebounding game, the loose balls and turnovers really hurt us tonight,” Pless said. “The two quarters that we played really well against Southeast Whitfield, our possessions that ended with turnovers were low. The fourth quarter in that game when Southeast Whitfield made the run, our possessions had a high percentage of ending in turnovers and that’s kind of been the story of the year for us.”
