Boys basketball: Third-quarter surge powers Newman past Forreston

FORRESTON – For a while, it looked like Saturday’s first-round Forreston Holiday Tournament game between Newman and Forreston would be a close one.

But in the third quarter, the Comets (5-5) erased all doubt.

After outscoring the Cardinals (1-5) by 20 in the penultimate period, Newman coasted to a 58-38 win. The Comets will face Lena-Winslow in the second round 6 p.m. Tuesday.

“We shot the ball a lot better [in the second half],” Newman senior Isaiah Williams said. “We shot 0-for-17 in the first half, and then I think on the first five shots of the second half, we were like 4-for-5. I think that was the big difference.”

The first quarter was back and forth. The Comets started the game on a 9-0 run in the first six minutes, led by a seven-point outburst from senior forward Lucas Simpson, but the Cardinals responded with a 19-2 run through the beginning of the second quarter.

Forreston freshman forward Jonathan Milnes provided the spark, hitting three 3-pointers in the last two minutes to draw within 11-9 at the end of the first quarter.

That momentum continued into the second with a 10-0 opening run. Milnes hit another 3 from the top of the key for a 12-11 Forreston lead with 7:16 to play in the half. Sophomore guard Kendall Erdmann followed with a pull-up jumper from mid range, then sophomore guard Brady Gill buried a left-wing 3 and Erdmann dropped in a layup for a 19-11 Cardinals’ lead with 4:50 remaining.

“We didn’t have No. 32 [Jonathan Milnes] on our scouting report. We didn’t know if he was a shooter or a driver, so I think he just came out and made some shots and surprised us,” Simpson said. “Once we got him covered, I think we were able to get back in a rhythm.”

That’s precisely what the Comets did. Simpson grabbed an offensive rebound and found a cutting Williams for a layup, then made two layups of his own around a free throw to make it a one-point game.

After a Williams steal and fast-break layup gave the Newman the lead, Forreston junior forward Brenden Greenfield took it right back at 21-20 with a pair of free throws as 1:11 remained. That was the score at halftime.

In the third quarter, the Comets outpaced the Cardinals 29-9.

Greenfield pushed the margin to 25-20 with consecutive layups in the first 30 seconds, but the Comets quickly turned the tide.

Williams buried back-to-back 3s from the left corner to put Newman up 26-25, and that was just the spark it needed.

“That gave me a bunch of confidence,” Williams said about the back-to-back 3s. “My coach told me just to go to the corner, and that it’d be open, and that he trusted me to hit it. Having my teammates feeding me the ball with my coach encouraging me, I felt unstoppable.”

Simpson said he could feel the momentum swing from that point in the game.

“That was big when Isaiah hit those shots, because we weren’t hitting anything [before that],” he said. “Once he hit those two, we started making more shots.”

Simpson scored 14 points over the last 5:46 as Newman stretched its lead to 49-30 at the end of the third quarter.

Simpson finished with game-highs of 30 points, 13 rebounds and seven steals; Williams compiled 15 points and seven rebounds; George Jungerman supplied six points and six rebounds; and Garret Matznick and Cody McBride grabbed five rebounds each for the Comets. McBride also dished five assists, and Evan Bushman added seven points off the bench.

Milnes scored 12 points on four 3s and grabbed three rebounds, Greenfield totaled nine points and nine rebounds, and Gill supplied seven points and three rebounds for the Cardinals.