Pickin' Splinters

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Greece Olympia erases early deficit, holds on to beat World of Inquiry

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By PAUL GOTHAM

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Caiden Evans and Terry Griffin, Jr. combined for 15 third-quarter points when Greece Olympia used a 19-5 advantage to erase a halftime deficit and pull away for a 64-59 victory over host World of Inquiry in non-league action, Monday night.

Evans scored 12 of his game-high 23 points in the decisive frame while Griffin added five of his 20 points.

“Those two are our guys that we lean on,” said Olympia head coach Joe Tisa.

Trailing 30-27 at halftime, Griffin buried a corner 3-pointer to tie the game at 32. Evans converted pairs of free throws on the next two possessions to give the Spartans a lead they did not surrender.

“We got the ball to him quickly off defensive stops,” Tisa said of Evans . “I don’t think anybody can guard him when he makes one quick move to the basket.”

Olympia scored on 7-of-12 possessions to close the third quarter and held World of Inquiry without a field goal during that stretch.

Griffin converted 1-of-2 free throws to open the fourth, and Olympia had its largest lead of the game at 47-35.

“Our defensive intensity really changed the complexity of the game,” Tisa said. “We looked like we wanted it more.”

Olympia’s defense started to show itself midway through the second quarter.

After digging a 15-point hole, Olympia closed the second on a 12-0 run. The Spartans forced four turnovers on the last 11 possessions heading into the break.

“We got ball pressure on their point guard and forced them to make bad angle passes to the wings,” Tisa said. “We were able to get in there. Our defensive intensity changed. We got momentum.”

Griffin scored seven points in the quarter. The 6-foot-5 junior forward finished a pair of buckets in the lane before he stepped out on to the perimeter. His corner triple made it a three-point game at 30-27 heading into halftime.

“We started running one of our plays that gets him a lot of touches,” Tisa said. “Noah Tackley screened the middle of their zone and allowed Terry to open up. Then our guys on the wings were making the right reads and instead of bounce passes, they were throwing lobs.”

Evans connected on 7-of-10 shots inside the arc in the win and handed out a pair of assists.

“He continues to look for his teammates,” Tisa said “He did a good job, in the first half especially, hitting guys that were making cuts to the basket and then off the high screen and roll. He was hitting guys early, so it opened up things in transition for him as well.”

Olympia finished the game with a 36-12 advantage on points in the paint.

“That’s where we have to win games, inside the paint,” Tisa said. “Those are high-percentage shots for us. We have a lot of slashers.”

Evans went to the bench with his fifth foul at the 3:37 mark of the fourth quarter. Olympia (4-8) had a 12-point lead when the junior guard left the game.

The Spartans were 3-of-8 from the free-throw during a 48-second stretch when World of Inquiry made it a two-point game at 60-58 with 48.3 remaining in the game.

“Free-throw shooting has been our Achilles heel all year. Outside of Caiden and Terry, we need some guys to step up and make free throws.”

The win was the third straight for the Spartans.

“Outside of free-throw shooting, we’re starting to put together good performances. We’re a young team. We only have two guys that played varsity last year.”

Justice Stubbs hit three 3-pointers, and Jaedon Adams-Griffin scored six of his team-high 16 points in the first quarter when World of Inquiry (6-8) jumped out to a 17-8 lead. Stubbs finished with 14 points. Diego Martinez added 11. The Griffins played without Yacoub Tarawally.

GREECE OLYMPIA
Caiden Evans 8 6-6 23, Ezequiel O’Farril 1 0-0 2, William Brown-Nelson 2 1-1 7, Amare Edwards 0 5-10 5, Kahleil Pritchett 1 0-0 2, Noah Tackley 1 0-0 2, Terry Griffin, Jr. 7 4-6, 20, Connor Welker 2 0-2 4 TOTALS 22 16-29 64

WORLD OF INQUIRY
Diego Martinez 4 2-4 11, Jaedon Adams-Griffin 2 11-15 16, Markiest Griffin 1 0-0 2, Junayde Rochardson 3 1-2 7, Tyrone Fisher 0 0-2 0, Justice Stubbs 4 2-2 14, Honor Patterson 1 0-0 3, Diontaye Carroll 2 0-0 6 TOTALS 17 16-23 59

GREECE OLYMPIA 8 19 19 18 — 64
WORLD OF INQUIRY 17 13 5 24 — 59

3-point goals — Greece Olympia 4 (Evans 1, Brown-Nelson 1, Griffin 2); World of Inquiry 9 (Martinez 1, Adams-Griffin 1, Stubbs 4, Patterson 1, Carroll 2)

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