A hurricane swept through the Montour Athletic Center as New Castle ripped through the Spartans, 61-40, in a bruising, high-tempo win Tuesday night.
Kai Cox led the charge with 14 points, nine rebounds and seven assists.
“I like passing the ball,” Cox said. “I’m a playmaker, so I’ll do that a lot. I didn’t even know I had that many assists. I started off slow, and I wasn’t making that many shots today, but I did what I had to do. I played defense and made plays when I needed to.”
Damian Harrison delivered 22 points and four 3-pointers.
The Red Hurricanes led 27-17 going into the third quarter. Harrison sparked the offense with three 3-pointers as New Castle rallied for 19 points to go up 46-29.
The lead became insurmountable as Harrison helped the Red Hurricanes pull away.
Harrison gave the Red Hurricanes energy as he notched a wicked fast-break dunk, causing them to adjust the hoop afterwards.
“In the beginning, my shots weren’t really falling, so I had to find another way to help my team score,” Harrison said. “I was just hustling and grabbing rebounds.”
Harrison heated up as he knocked down all four of his 3s in the second half.
Montour’s Loïc Kalau finished with 15 points and 10 rebounds. The Red Hurricanes tried to dial in on Kalau.
“He’s big,” Harrison said. “I’ve been cool with him for a couple years now. He’s real big, and he’s hard to guard.”
Montour coach Bill Minear was happy to see Kalau adjust but wished the team could have shot better.
“We’re running a lot of sets where it ends up with spacing,” he said. “It’s hard to double him because somebody’s open. Now, if they hit the 3s, then we’re even harder to stop, but we haven’t really shot good all season.”
New Castle’s physical defense and full-court press disrupted the Spartans. Montour was able to get shots but couldn’t make them as the Spartans connected on just two.
“We couldn’t hit outside shots,” Minear said. “We had shots. We had plenty of outside shots, open ones. You have to hit those in today’s game.”
Minear was impressed with Harrison and Cox, especially with how they know how to use their bodies.
“We battled in different spots, but I thought New Castle was able to sustain it because they’re more experienced,” Minear said. “When we had some mistakes, it dominoed into two or three mistakes in a row or two or three bad plays in a row.”
New Castle’s Marino Graham tallied 14 points and seven assists.
Harrison said he loves how the Red Hurricanes play as a team.
“For us, being physical and hustling is our whole game, being fast up and down the court,” Harrison said. “We just rely on our defense into offense. Our good point guards make good passes, and we have to make sure the shots go in.”
The Red Hurricanes led 12-7 at the end of the first quarter.
After a layup by Montour’s Mark Carter, New Castle’s Graham tallied a four-point play and a Harrison layup helped spark a 13-4 run that put the Red Hurricanes up 25-12.
Cox led the Hurricanes on the run as he mustered eight points, eight rebounds and three assists in the first half.
Nevertheless, thanks to back-to-back Carter steals, Montour climbed back and cut the deficit to 27-17 going into halftime.
The Red Hurricanes then hung 19 points on the Spartans in the third quarter, outscoring Montour 19-12 to go up 46-29.
New Castle pulled away to a 61-40 win.
“This is a great win because we’re now 4-0 going into section play,” Cox said. “This gives us a lot of momentum.”
Minear, who called New Castle the WPIAL’s best team, is ready for a tough part of the schedule.
“We go to Lincoln Park Friday, South Allegheny on Saturday, then we play Chartiers Valley here Tuesday, so this is probably the toughest stretch of the season,” Minear said. “As long as we can keep our confidence by January, we should be headed in the right direction.“