Justin Lloyd scored 17 of his 19 points in the second half to help Midland Valley earn a 62-58 road win over Laney Wednesday in the final game of the first day of the Wildcat Shootout. Lloyd scored all but 10 of Midland Valley’s 27 second half points. And the senior guard had an immediate answer all three times Laney threatened to take a lead during a hard fought game complete with high flying plays above the rim by both teams.
After Barry Wade made two free throws to tie the game at 39 midway through the third quarter, Lloyd made assists on consecutive possessions to Antwone Bates, who led all scorers with 22 points. Lloyd scored twice more before the end of the quarter to give the Mustangs some breathing room and a 49-44 lead heading into the fourth. Lloyd scored on a wide open layup as the third quarter clock ticked toward zero after a well executed pick-and-roll with fellow senior TJ McElmurray, who scored 10 points in the game.
Sophomore Mekhi Nelson, who scored 7 of his 9 points in the fourth quarter, made a three pointer with 6:22 left in the fourth quarter to cut Midland Valley’s lead to two. But Lloyd answered again, this time with 8 points in a less than two-minute stretch that included a beautiful floater on the right baseline from about 14 feet away, and a four point play with 4:37 remaining that gave Midland Valley a 57-49 advantage.
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But Laney made another run. Kylan Hill, who led Laney with 18 points, earned three separate trips to the line and converted four free throws. Jaylon Carter, who scored 10 points, added a field goal, and Nelson sank a pair of free throws to even the score at 57 with 1:50 remaining. But Midland Valley answered with some beautifully executed offensive action that ended with a wide open layup by Lloyd after an assist by Bates.
Lloyd made two more free throws to ice the game.
Although the second half was a low scoring affair, the game’s first sixteen minutes was full of fireworks. The first possession of the game saw TJ McElmurray finishing an alley oop dunk on a feed from Desmond Evans.
Soon afterwards, McElmurray appeared to have another chance for an easy dunk, but Hill swatted it away with admirable hustle and impressive athleticism from the 6’7” sophomore.
Then Evans got in on the high flying act with a thunderous slam on a fast break.
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And the final 29 seconds of the half saw a three pointer by Evans, a putback by Hill and another three pointer by Tyler White that put the Mustangs ahead 35-30 at the break.
Find schedule information for Thursday and Friday’s sessions of the Wildcat Shootout and its novel format at this link:
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