Ranger Puts Away John A. Logan With Fast Start
Bolt-ing off the starting line like Usain at the Olympics, the Ranger Rangers sprinted to a 17 point cushion at the 11:00 mark. At that point in the proceedings, it looked like a long day for the Volunteers from John A. Logan College. But the No. 4 seed in the tournament and Central District Champions weren’t going to go away without a fight.
After the slow start, the Volunteers trailed by double digits for most of the rest of the half. Lagging behind, 34-19, they put together a streak of 11 consecutive points to pull within four. Ranger regrouped with a 5-0 run of their own to end the half, taking a 39-34 lead to the locker room.
Xavier Ball (6’7″ SO from Winnfield, LA), led the Volunteers’ charge scoring 15 of his team high 20 points in that first period. Jorell Saterfield found the bottom of the net for 12 of his game high 23 for the Rangers, to help fend off the Volunteers’ surge.
Logan was off target considerably in the first half, always a possibility the first game of a National Tournament. The Vols hit only 27% of their FGs while Ranger connected at a rate of 49%. Despite those numbers, JAL was still within striking distance, down by only 7 at the break. That was due to their 9-13 effort from the charity stripe, compared to the Ranger going one for four.
Ranger was able to keep some distance for most of the first ten minutes of the second half, with the lead varying between 5-12 points. Then Ranger saw the finish line and picked up the pace with a 11-0 run at the midway point of the second period to take a 75-60 lead.
Logan actually took the lead before the game even tipped-off. The Rangers were assessed an administrative technical foul for not having their starters marked prior to the ten minute mark in pre-game warm-ups.
Unfortunately for the Vols, that was the only time they were ahead. Ranger scored :15 seconds later on a Mark Mayle jumper, and never relinquished the lead. Ranger outscored the Vols 48-45 in the final half to come away with the 87-75 conquest.
In the victory, Ranger had four other double digit scorers in support of Saterfield’s 23. Next in line was Keisei Tominaga with 16, Mark Mayle added 12. Peyton Rodgers-Smith along with Nika Metskhvarishvil each put in 10. Rodgers-Smith and Saterfield were co-leaders with 4 assists each. Metskhvarishvil and Rodgers-Smith shared game high with 8 rebounds apiece.
Ranger, the Southwest District Champion, improves to 21-4 and a date in the quarterfinals with the winner of the South Plains College (an at-large entry from the same District)/South Georgia State winner. That game will be played Thursday, April 22 at 2:00.
John A. Logan College sees their District Championship season come to end with a record of 18-5. After Balls 20, the other leading scorers for the Vols were: Romon Douglas-Watkins pumping in 17, Isaiah Ervin with 13, and Sydney Curry totaling ten. Douglas-Watkins was team high with 7 rebounds and four assist.
