Govs hope wins will continue

For the Nelson Govs boys basketball team, last Wednesday’s 47-44 victory over visiting Amherst was what they hoped to be a sign of things to come.

The Governors finished strong against the Lancers, which is what they will need to do to earn a spot in the Region B tournament after struggling to a 4-10 record.

“This was a good win and we really needed it,” said Nelson coach Brandon Garrett. “We’ve been struggling all year, but hopefully we can gain some more momentum over the next couple of weeks and that will carry us through the district tournament and hopefully we can get to that region tournament.”

The Governors (5-10), which trailed for most of the first half, took a 30-27 lead into the start of the fourth quarter, but Amherst rallied and took a 35-34 lead on a free throw by Tyler Brown with 4:44 left to play.

But the Lancers’ lead didn’t last long as Quincy Murphy scored on a stick-back at the 4:18 mark and Nelson never lost the lead again. Murphy scored six of his team high 12 points in a high-scoring fourth quarter. He also finished with nine rebounds.

Both teams scored more than 35 percent of their points in fourth quarter, though the Governors scored most of their points from the foul line, as Nelson was 11 of 14 from the charity stripe over the last eight minutes.

Jordan Wooten led the parade to foul line by going six-for-six. He also had an assist and a blocked shot in the fourth and finished the game with eight points.

Murphy gave Nelson its biggest lead at 43-37 with a pair of free throws and 2:55 left in the game. After the teams traded a couple of possessions, he then took a charge from Jordan McCray with 1:33 left.

Still, Amherst (2-6) wouldn’t go away. After Trey Barnett missed a pair of free throws, Mario Vaughan made a three-pointer to cut the deficit to 43-40 with 1:18 left. Then Murphy grabbed a rebound and found Trevor Martin headed in for a layup, but Martin missed and McCray made the Governors pay by scoring on a driving layup making it 43-42 Nelson.

Barnett hit a pair of free throws with 28 seconds left, which McCray answered with a layup making it 45-44 Nelson, but Wooten made it 47-44 Nelson with a pair of free throws and 13.5 seconds left. McCray and Brown missed 3-pointers to end the game.

McCray and Brown both finished with 16 points and both had six points in the fourth quarter. Vaughan scored all five of his points in fourth quarter. The Governors’ Rod Vest had 10 points, 11 rebounds and five assists. Martin finished with five points and nine rebounds.

Nelson shot just 57 percent (16-28) from the foul line but shot 79 percent in the fourth quarter from the line. Amherst made just 10 of its 21 attempted free throws (48 percent) for the game.

“We got to cut down on the mistakes,” said Lancers coach Eddie Carter. “We didn’t shoot the ball well from the foul line and that’s the difference in a close game.”

“We had a rough stretch (from the foul line) the first three quarters, but we knocked them in when it counted,” Garrett said.

Martin’s contribution was especially big as last season’s leading scorer has struggled with an injury early in the season and it was his absence and the absence of super-sub, Calvin Baker, who recently returned from a broken hand, that accounted for much of Nelson’s struggles early in the season.

“Neither one of those guys is at full speed yet,” Garrett said. “But, just to be able get some minutes from them is good.”

The Lancers still are searching for consistency after having gotten a late start due to the extended football season.

“We’re struggling,” Carter said. “We started behind everybody else. We’re trying to get the guys together and find some kind of chemistry. We are searching for the right recipe, but we have a good bunch of kids and are working hard.”