Early deficit too much for Willard

CAREY — The deficit was just too much. The Willard boys basketball team trailed by as many as 19 points in the third quarter and still by 17 a minute into the fourth quarter. The Crimson Flashes cut Carey's lead down to six points with 90 seconds to go, but couldn't close the gap any further in a 61-50 non-league loss to the host Blue Devils on Tuesday. 'Their kids made some shots," Willard coach Joe Bedingfield said. "Our kids clawed back in by pressuring the ball and mixing in some trapping late in the game. I thought we did a good job with effort." Willard (4-4) trailed 49-32 after Alexander Putnam opened the fourth quarter with two free throws. On the other end, Alex Strayer canned a 3 and Max Dawson hit two free throws, picked a steal, and scored to cut the Carey (6-0) lead to 51-39. It looked like the Blue Devils had the answer as Carter Smiley hit Carey's 11th 3-pointer of the night, but Isaac Robinson scored, split two free throws, and Dawson drilled a triple to bring Willard within 54-45. Putnam knocked down a pair of free throws, but Dawson tallied a three-point play for the Flashes. After Dominic Yeater missed the front end of a one-and-one for Carey, Strayer's tally with 1:34 drew Willard within 56-50. But that was the closest Flashes could get. Putnam and Brayden Young each made a pair of free throws to help the Blue Devils put the game away. Willard went scoreless after Strayer's final bucket. "I didn't think we did a great job finishing around the rim tonight," Bedingfield said. "It was a pretty physical game, and anytime you play Carey, it's going to be. They are strong, athletic kids." The teams went back-and-forth for the first 11 minutes of the game. Carey was up 13-10 after one quarter and pushed the lead to 16-12 a minute into the second quarter before consecutive scores by Dawson knotted the game at 16. The Blue Devils were up 19-18 a minute later when their 3-point shooting became the difference in the first half. Putnam and Bryce Young each drilled a triple before Smiley picked a steal and scored. Smiley made two more 3s before swiping a steal and scoring. Austin Niederkohr then scored with 13 seconds left in the half to help Carey to a 37-23 lead at halftime. "We tried to mix up our defense with Cam Robinson out," said Bedingfield of his team's second-leading scorer, who is injured. "We did a pretty good job of that in the first quarter, I thought. The second quarter was the difference in the game. They did a nice job of hitting their open man." The Blue Devils made the first six 3s they attempted in the second quarter en route to making 9-of-14 tries in the first half. "We knew they were going to shoot," Bedingfield said. "Sometimes guys, especially when you are switching defenses on makes and misses, they lost some shooters. We were trying to switch screens, but it wasn't so much their screens but rather their cutting and interchanging. I think it made us a step slow." Smiley topped Carey with 21 points while Putnam added 17 points and 10 rebounds. Putnam entered the night shooting over 80 percent from the foul line and connected on all seven attempts against Willard. "We have kids that can just knock it down," Young said. "We do a good job of finding each other. That's the thing about the way we play is you don't know who it's going to be. We don't necessarily play toward one person. We play basketball. When we have good energy, the ball finds the person it needs to find." Dawson led all scorers with 29 points while Robinson added 12 points. The Flashes are right back in action Wednesday at home against Edison. "I'd like to see us get back to what happened in the first quarter when we were going inside," Bedingfield said. "I thought we did a decent job going inside to Isaac, but we went away from that." WILLARD (4-4) Jackson Beamer 1 0—2, Max Dawson 12 3—29, Isaac Robinson 5 2—12, Alex Strayer 3 0—7. TOTALS 21-5—50. CAREY (6-0) Carter Smiley 8 0—21, Alexander Putnam 4 7—17, Bryce Young 2 0—6, Austin Niederkohr 4 1—9, Brayden Young 2 2—8. TOTALS 20-10—61. Willard 10 13 9 18 — 50 Carey 13 24 10 14 — 61 3-point FGs: (W) Dawson 2, Strayer; (C ) Smiley 5, Putnam 2, Br. Young 2, Bra. Young 2