TOWN AND COUNTRY • The Hazelwood Central basketball team made a statement against De Smet in the championship game of the Ameritime Classic on Friday night.
This was not the same Hawks team the Spartans defeated by 15 points in the quarterfinals of the Meramec Holiday Festival High School Basketball Tournament on Dec. 28.
This Hazelwood Central team, which didn't have Jordan Martin or B.J. McLaughlin in the first meeting, played one of its best games of the season in beating De Smet 67-54 at Missouri Baptist University.
"I thought we finally put one together for 32 minutes, from start to finish," Hazelwood Central coach Josh Martin said. "We got out to a good start, we maintained some of their runs, we overcame some things and then we finished at the end. It's good that we were able to do that."
It was also the 10th consecutive victory for second-seeded Hazelwood Central (13-4), the No. 9 team in the STLhighschoolsports.com large-schools rankings, and avenged that 69-54 loss on Dec. 28.
Marcus Lampley led Central with 19 points, while Jordan Martin added 16 and Marcus Hinton had 11. Lampley and Jordan Martin both said this performance was "by far" the Hawks best of the season.
"We came out and played as a family, like we always talk about," Lampley said. "We executed. We knew this was a big game for us to redeem ourselves from the last tournament. We came out and played as a team."
Jordan Martin said Hazelwood Central was clicking.
"It showed that we can go a long way if we stay together and just play as a team," he said.
Top-seeded De Smet (13-6), which is ranked 10th among area large schools, got a game-high 22 points from Nolan Berry, 13 from Jamie Hudson and 11 from Eric Moeller.
"They were ready from the very moment it started and it took us an entire quarter to get started," De Smet coach Kevin Poelker said. "They did a really good job of playing to their strengths and did a good job of limiting our strengths. They won that battle. They played very well."
The Spartans, who were without starting forward Alec Bausch (team issue), never led on Friday night though they were able to tie the score briefly at 29-29 early in the third quarter.
Hazelwood Central was able to build a 10-point lead by the end of the third quarter and never let the Spartans get closer than six points in the fourth.
The teams will meet for a third time this season on Feb. 4 at Hazelwood Central.
PARKWAY SOUTH 59, LAFAYETTE 48: The fourth-seeded Patriots (13-5) watched a 15-point halftime lead shrink down to two in the fourth quarter, but were able to hold on to win the Ameritime Classic third-place game for the fifth straight year.
Mark Waller scored a game-high 23 points to lead Parkway South, which also got 18 from sophomore Jeremy Verges. Sophomores Nate Messer (11 points) and Evan Scales (10) paced sixth-seeded Lafayette (9-7).
