Jags lose big leads, fall to Eagle's Landing

The Spalding High Jaguars basketball team blew leads of 14-0 and 30-18 Tuesday night, eventually falling 59-57 in overtime to the Eagle’s Landing Golden Eagles in Region 4-AAAA crossover action at the SHS gym.

This was a crushing defeat for the Div. B Jags, who dropped their second consecutive contest to fall to 1-2. The Div. A Golden Eagles remained undefeated at 4-0.

Buoyed by five Spalding football players (including big man Brodarious Hamm) competing for the first time, the Jags jumped on the Golden Eagles early. Football players Rasheed Marshall and Deaundre Alford each sank a 3-pointer and Alford converted a 3-point play to give the Jags a 14-0 first-quarter lead at the 3:00 mark. Eagle’s Landing couldn’t buy a basket early, missing its first six shots of the game before scoring on a Jacob Durmevil basket to make it 14-2. Spalding led 17-5 after the first quarter.





Hamm had his way inside on the smaller EL forwards, scoring on two of three shots to put Spalding up 23-10. But EL’s press started to bother the Jags and they finally made some shots to chip away at the lead. Alford and fellow senior Brooks Davis both hit treys and the Jags managed to lead 30-18 at the half.

Spalding’s game plan was to have one player shadow EL senior standout Jordan Lewis all night and it worked, as Lewis only scored seven points in the first half. But in the third quarter, Lewis’ teammates took up the slack. They pressured Spalding into mistakes, which led to the EL comeback. After Spalding’s Davis sank a jumper to put the Jags up 40-30 at the 3:00 mark, EL freshman C.J. Hood sank two straight treys to cut the lead to 40-36, sparking the Golden Eagles. Another basket by Durmevil minutes later tied the game at 40-all, completing the comeback.

Spalding freshman Zion Puckett then made a free throw and fed Hamm for a layup to give the Jags a 43-40 lead heading into the fourth.

The final stanza was pure mayhem.