Jeffersontown finished the first quarter with a flurry, kept visiting Tates Creek on its heels most of the night and rolled to an 80-48 thumping Thursday night in the finals of the Gaslight Holiday Classic.
“It’s one of the better games we’ve played,” said Clay Moody, the Chargers’ first-year coach.
The Chargers (10-4) led just 11-10 when Daniel Williams drilled a three-pointer with 2:37 left, starting a 10-2 run to end the quarter.
For Tates Creek (7-7), the news got worse in the second quarter. With the Commodores trailing 27-18, they watched Jeffersontown finish the first half with a 17-3 run to build a commanding 44-21 halftime edge.
“Jeffersontown, I think, is one of the best basketball teams in the state right now,” said Tates Creek coach Wayne Breeden. “I’m really impressed with their speed of play. ... We had a lot of trouble containing them off the dribble.”
Moody, meanwhile, deflected some of the praise Breeden heaped on his team and said the Chargers are a work in progress. “We’re trying to get better every game and I think we are,” he said. “We’re getting better. But we’re not the best team in the (Sixth) region.”
Though Tates Creek sliced the deficit to 52-36 by the end of the third quarter when Moody said his team “relaxed,” the Chargers quickly extended their lead by scoring the first eight points of the fourth quarter in just one minute.
“We got our intensity back,” the Jeffersontown coach said.
The Chargers forced 20 turnovers and hit 10 of 20 three-pointers.
Diondrey Holt led the charge for Jeffersontown with 17 points, scoring 15 in the first half. He hit 8 of 11 shots and most of those came in transition. “Diondrey Holt — he did a great job of finishing near the basket,” Moody said. “He finished in traffic. We used our defense to get our offense going.”
Greg Minor, who hit 7 of 11 shots, added 14 points for the Chargers and grabbed a team-high seven rebounds.
DeMichael Jackson, who starred on the Jeffersontown football team, added 13 points. “He’s a winner,” Moody said of Jackson. “He’s one of our leaders.”
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