Scecina Memorial turned a shaky start into a blowout victory on Tuesday evening. Here’s how they took down Chatard.

The first quarter was anything but pretty for Scecina. By my count, the Crusaders had seven turnovers in the first six minutes of the game. On the other end, Chatard was working to get easy baskets around the hoop off of cuts. Jason Moore took one Scecina turnover and finished the play himself with a dunk.

The period was saved by two three-pointers in the final minute by Mario Dippel. His back to back triples took Scecina from down four to leading by two heading to the second quarter.

Scecina pushed its lead all the way up to eight points before Chatard began to chip away. Turnovers were again a problem for Scecina. They had four turnovers which helped the Trojans get back into the game late in the first half.

Senior forward Max McGinnis was a bright spot for Chatard. He had a couple of scores during the Trojan run. He ended up finishing with 14 points and seven rebounds in the game.

The game was still tied midway through the third quarter. That’s when Scecina’s pressure defense started to break Chatard’s poise. Scecina ended the period on a 16-2 run.

“We focused increasing our pressure very much because we know they don’t like pressure,” said Manuel Brown of Scecina’s spurt. “They like to move it around, be patient while we want to push the tempo to get some shots for us because that’s our game.”

A couple scores into the third quarter run, Brown had a dunk over the top of a Chatard playing in transition. The play made the gym buzz and seemed to take Scecina’s energy to a new level.

“We feed off of it a lot,” Riley Carter said of the dunk.” It gets us very hyped, so much energy comes from those plays.”

Carter had his own highlight reel dunk a little bit later. Unofficially, Carter scored 20 points on 8-8 shootings from the field. His leaping ability is rare plus he has a smooth shot from the outside.

Scecina won going away in the fourth quarter, 69-47. They are now 4-0 on the season after wins over Herron, Beech Grove and Attucks.

Chatard – Max McGinnis 14 points (7-11 FG, 0-2 3FG), 7 rebounds, 3 turnovers, Jason Moore 6 points (3-7 FG, 0-2 3FG), 5 rebounds, 2 steals, 2 turnovers, 1 assist, Kevin McNeils 6 points (2-10 FG), 6 rebounds, TJ Man 6 points, Billy Dury 11 points (4-8 FG, 1-3 3FG), 5 turnovers, 3 assists, Graham Jaeger 2 points, 4 assists, 4 turnovers, Cody Albin 2 points

Scecina- Jayron Brooks 7 points, Kobe Clancy 8 points (4-6 FG), 2 assists, 7 turnovers, Manuel Brown 15 points (5-9 FG, 1-3 3FG, 4-4 FT), 2 assists, 3 turnovers, 1 block, 2 steals, Riley Carter 20 points (8-8 FG, 2-2 3FG, 2-2 FT), 2 turnovers, 2 steals, Mario Dippel 9 points, Makylin Brown 5 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals, Dylan New 1 point