BOYS BASKETBALL
By Tim Falls, Sports Editor
The Lawrence High School boys basketball is off to a rough start with the Cardinals still looking for a win.
Lawrence lost to cross-town rival Notre Dame, 58-45, on Friday to fall to 0-4.
”I knew the first part of our schedule would be tough,” said Lawrence coach Pat Tarrant. “We have a lot of new faces and are still moving slow.”
Lawrence opened the season with a 73-40 loss to Princeton on Dec. 14 and then fell to Monroe, 72-48, in a non-league game the next day.
”We got beat up against Princeton and Monroe,” said Tarrant, “and we weren’t ready to win against Nottingham. We just got unlucky at the end.”
Lawrence led the Northars for three quarters, but Nottingam edged the Cardinals, 63-61, coming from behind in the fourth quarter. “We got banged up our first two games,” said Tarrant, “but we should have beaten Nottingham at Nottingham. That would have been a big win for us.”
Terrance Bailey and Noel Powell led Lawrence with 17 points against the Northstars. Nick Brackett put in 11 and Corey Thomas scored nine.
Lawrence outscored Nottingham, 15-12, in the first quarter, 17-16, in the second quarter, and 15-13, in the third quarter, but trialed 22-14, in the fourth quarter to fall to 0-3.
”I’m seeing steady improvement,” said Tarrant, noting the games against Nottingham and Notre Dame were closer than Lawrence’s first two losses. “Stuff that should be second nature is not. Right now we’re one step behind. We have to coach from the sideline too much.”
Tarrant said his team has to learn to recognize and adjust when teams switch their style of play.
”There’s no shortcuts,” said Tarrant. “It just takes time going over it until it becomes a habit.”
Brackett led Lawrence’s offense against Notre Dame with 13 pionts, while Powell scored 10, Bailey and Thomas scored six, Phil Annand scored four and Bobby Langley, J.T. McGahron and Tomai Young all scored two points.
Brackett, Bailey and Powell all scored eight points in the loss to Princeton, while Powell scored 15 against Monore, Bailey had 14 and Brackett scored 13.
Lawrence is set to play Pennington today in the opening game of Hopewell’s John Molinelli Tournament.
Tarrant said seeing the Red Raiders in the tournament would be good for his team because, “Pennington likes to change defenses a lot and that’s good because we need to see it.”

