Despite a valiant effort, Strawberry Crest basketball loses to Chamberlain 62 to 42.
Crest entered Tuesday night’s game looking for their first win of the season after losing back-to-back away games to Bayshore Christian and Trinity Catholic. On Tuesday, they hosted the Chamberlain Storm, a team who entered the game 0-1 after losing the season opener to Clearwater Central Catholic, in a game where Chamberlain scored a total of 30 points.
A mix-up in the start time had an arrival midway through the game for this writer. At halftime, Chamberlain led 34-27.
The third quarter started with Chamberlain scoring first, with number 20 hitting a mid-range shot. Strawberry Crest returned fire with fire as Chris Ramirez made a floater. Then, the Chargers forced a stop, rebounded, and got out into transition rather quickly and Cameron Crowe finished the play with a nice layup. Number 30 for Chamberlain was disrupting the glass throughout the second half, this time getting an offensive rebound and finishing off with a putback. It ended up evening out because on the very next possession, the Chargers got an offensive rebound by Hunter Hall and he also put it back up for the score. At this point, the Chargers offense started slowing down as the Storm ended up getting back-to-back blocks on their possessions. These blocks resulted in fastbreak opportunities and points for the Storm. The 3rd quarter ended with Chamberlain in the lead 42-33, outscoring the Chargers 8-6.
The Chargers entered the 4th quarter down 9 points and they needed to start scoring and score fast. They started their first two possessions with trips to the free throw line but ended up going 1-4 on those attempts. The Storm started the 4th with back-to-back points in the paint by number 13, extending their lead to double digits. Cameron Crowe scored the Charger’s first points of the quarter with a strong, contested layup. The very next possession, the Storm missed and Crest rebounded, and quickly, Maximus Von Ancker hit a floater. A timeout is called by Chamberlain with 5:09 left in the game. Multiple possessions went by after the timeout. Another timeout was called as Chamberlain stole an inbounds pass and took it for an easy layup. At this point, it’s 50-38 Chamberlain with 4:12 left in the game. Number 11 and 13 for Chamberlain got two easy baskets after the timeout, then Cameron Crowe got the and-1 for Crest and converted it. That unfortunately was the last name-worthy play by Crest, as Chamberlain went on a 12-4 run in the final 3 minutes to end the game with the final score of 62-42 Chamberlain.
The game makes the Chargers 0-3 while the Storm move to 1-1.
Across town, the Plant City Raiders beat Newsome 44-42 and Durant topped Sumner 44-48.
