Bartlett continues successful transition with win over Fenton
Bartlett is adjusting to an entirely new style of basketball this year and so far the transition is going pretty well.
Behind 20 points from Nathan Scearce and 14 from Kelton McEwen, the Hawks downed visiting Fenton, 76-55, in an Upstate Eight matchup Tuesday.
Nick Tinajero scored 18 points and Alejandro Diaz added 16 points and 9 rebounds for Fenton (3-3, 1-1).
Fenton trailed just 31-25 with 3 minutes left in the first half, but Bartlett closed the half on a 14-1 run. Scearce (2), McEwen and Ethan Hedeen hit four 3-pointers during the run.
"Just pushing on offense, getting stops on defense, because we're fast," McEwen said of the big run. "Just pushing out in transition and getting easy layups."
Scearce scored 20 in 3 quarters before sitting out most of the fourth. He added 7 rebounds.
McEwen grabbed 8 boards as Bartlett outrebounded the visitors, 39-22. Hedeen finished with 8 points and Keegan Kunzer added 7 for Bartlett (5-2, 2-0).
"I was crashing the boards, getting a lot of second opportunities," he said. "The 3-pointers were falling, made some tough shots."
After years of playing through 7-foot-4 center Conrad Luczynski, this year's Hawks roster lists no player taller than the 6-4 Scearce. But the Hawks can run and feature a deep roster of shooters, with 11 different Hawks scoring in Tuesday night's affair.
"It took awhile to get these kids to change the style from where you're going slow to let Conrad get in the block and then playing off him," Bartlett coach Jim Wolfsmith said. "And now we're going at pace. In the first half we had 40-some-odd points. We were just pushing, pushing. I like to coach teams like this, interchangeable with their parts. When you've got scorers like Nathan and Kelton - (Fenton) coach (Chaz) Taft came out in a triangle-and-two trying to shut them down, but we do have other guys who can score."
Diaz lifted Fenton early, scoring 12 points in the first half to keep things close. Then Tinajero took over in the second half, scoring 10 points in the third quarter alone.
Brandon Block added 10 points for the Bison.
Taft lamented that the Bison weren't able to contain Scearce after getting to within 5 points in the second quarter.
"That's when he got loose a little bit for some 3s, so we just had to do a better job of tightening up on the defensive end," said Taft.
Fenton took its only lead at 5-2 and was still within 9-8 before the Hawks embarked on a 12-1 run fueled by the defense. McEwen converted a steal into a breakaway, Scearce came up with another steal and fed Joshua Taylor for an easy bucket, and then Taylor's steal led to a 3-pointer by Shubh Mangrola for a 21-10 lead.