Maumelle junior guard Shawn Williams had a big night, but it was the team play of Watson Chapel that made the difference Saturday night in the championship game of the North Pulaski Invitational.
Williams, a 6-1 guard, hit nine three-pointers and scored 38 points, but Watson Chapel (4-0) came up with key defensive stands late in the game to pull out a 76-68 victory.
"I thought our guys competed,'' Watson Chapel Coach Matt Busch said. "[Williams] is about as good as you are going to see in a high school basketball game. He put on a show. My guys just kept competing. I told them he is going to have to miss one.
"The whole tournament I thought our guys played hard and they played as a team. They did everything they had to do to come through and get all these wins."
Maumelle (3-1) came up empty on its final four possessions. The Hornets missed two free throws, missed a layup, had a turnover and missed a three-pointer in crunch time.
While the Hornets were misfiring, Watson Chapel hit a field goal and 3 of 4 free throws to put away the game.
"I don't know where this going to lead us in February, but this is a good start in November,'' Busch said. "At this point of the season you just want to do what is best for your team. All the offensive things were great, but we needed to sit down and defend them. They came in here averaging over 80 a game, and that was our goal, to hold them below 80.
"They scored 88 one night and 84 the next. We knew that if we held them under 80 we would have a shot."
Sophomore Tremont Robinson added 12 points for the Hornets.
Watson Chapel was led by Xavier Young, a 6-6 post, and Kyran Thomas with 22 each. Sam King scored 12 points and Daetron Lindsay had 10.
Maumelle, which started three sophomores, led 23-18 after the first quarter and 37-35 at halftime. Chapel grabbed its first lead since early first quarter at 42-41 and led 57-53 going into the final quarter.
Sports on 11/23/2014