Turnovers continue to plague Indians

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Twice in the third quarter Washington-Marion led by five points, but turnovers proved to be its undoing as Ellender beat the Charging Indians 70-59 Thursday night at the LaGrange War in the Swamp.

“We haven’t got control of that (turnovers) yet,” W-M head coach Albert Hartwell said. “We are still working on it and trying to get it under control.

“We are making a few bad passes there, and a few bad shots here and we can do better. We are going to get there. We just need a little more time.”

W-M (6-8) committed 19 turnovers, leading to 17 points for the Patriots (13-4).

Senior center Jaylon Ned grabbed eight of his 13 rebounds in the first half and W-M led 25-21 at the break, but couldn’t hold on. Ned made it a double-double with 12 points and Jason Butler added 12 points.

“We loved the effort they started out with in the beginning, the fight they started with,” Hartwell said. “We lost it somewhere.

“We started dribbling too much, overpassing, not seeing people and not picking the right shots at the right time. We have not learned how to sustain that lead and hold somebody off yet. By district we hope to have it down pat.”

Derrick Allen scored on a fast break to put the Charging Indians up 36-31 with 3:45 left in the third quarter. But W-M turned the ball over on three of its next six possessions leading to five points for the Patriots and a 44-38 lead.

Preston Bourda’s three-point play after a fast-break layup and foul put Ellender up 39-38 and Nyhee Johnson added a layup off a W-M turnover for a 42-38 lead. W-M was called for a technical foul on the play and Ryan Williams hit both free throws for a 44-38 lead with 1:08 left in the third quarter.

Butler’s 3-pointer tied the score at 51-51 with 5:04 left, but W-M committed four turnovers in the final 4 minutes of the game and shot 3 of 10 during that span.

Williams scored a game-high 19 points and Bourda finished with 18.

{{tncms-inline content=”<p>LaGrange 106, Bolton 55</p>” id=”69da09ee-c018-4a43-97be-21362070ce8b” style-type=”quote” title=”Pull Quote” type=”relcontent”}}

After losing to Northside by six points in the championship game of the Lafayette Christian tournament last week, LaGrange poured on the points Thursday to beat Bolton 106-55 to open its own tournament.

“I always say we have to get that losing sweat off,” LaGrange head coach Jason Wilson said. “Coming off that loss to come out and play like we did, I am satisfied. I was proud of our effort the most part and execution wise against the zone. That has been giving up problems as of late.”

LaGrange (11-6) scored 28 points in the opening quarter thanks to 16 from Malichi Fairley, who finished with a game-high 27. Allen Johnson finished 21 points.

The Gators also got solid production from their bench. Dre Jones scored all 16 of his points in the second quarter and LaGrange led 59-23 at halftime. Markiste Marks chipped in 10 points and Donte Dodd scored all nine of hits points in the fourth quarter.

“We had some good bench play,” Wilson said. “Dodd is usually a starter and we were debating whether we were going to play him or not.

“He has been banged up. We tried to rest him, but he said he felt good.”

Ellender 70, W-M 59

LaGrange 106, Bolton 55