Boys Basketball: Spartans Miss Opportunities in Loss to Robinson

Leading after the first quarter against Robinson 21-15, the West Springfield Spartans did not play like a team with a 1-4 record.

But the Spartans let Robinson claw their way back into the game and found themselves only up by one at halftime, 33-32. Runs by Robinson in the third quarter led to the Spartans' demise as they fell 85-70 and 1-5 on the season.

"We didn't take advantage of our opportunities early," West Springfield coach Eldredge said. "We missed some free throws. We were 14 of 30 from the line – that's not going to win you many games.

"We really jumped on them when they weren't shooting the ball well and we really needed that early push in order to give us the leverage we needed in the second half to play our pressure defense. Because we didn't get into that, they came out in the second half and started banging shots."

The Rams wound up outscoring West Springfield 28-18 in the third quarter and 25-19 in the fourth quarter. Rams' senior Mike Rice came alive in the second half scoring 17 of his 26 points.

"We wanted to force them to shoot jump shots," Eldredge said. "One thing we said at halftime was, 'Let's make them open it up from the perimeter.' They couldn't hit early on.

"It was kind of a Dr. Jekyll-Mr. Hyde, catch-22, whatever you want to call it, where we felt like we stopped one thing, but then the other thing opened up. I just thought maybe we were gonna catch them on a cold night and run on them."

West Springfield did a good job shooting the ball in the first quarter, led by seniors Ali Hassan and Ali Kazmi. Kazmi had nine points in the first and hit a 3-pointer; Hassan had eight and hit two 3-pointers. But Hassan and Kazmi went cold from there until the fourth quarter when Kazmi added eight more points on a 3-pointer and 5-of-8 free-throw shooting.

Kazmi delivered a solid performance with a team-high 20 points, hitting six of his 10 free throws. Senior Lawrence Rouse added 17, including five of eight free throws. Junior Colin Mosley finished with 11 points and Hassan finished with 10 points.

"The problem with this team is we go through 4-to-5 minute stretches every game where we just collapse," Eldredge said. "The rest of it's fine, it's just those little stretches where you see the score balloon.

"The kids fight hard, they don't quit. We'll get there eventually. Just keep working the little things. Little things, in my experience, have led to big things.

"I don't think the boys are down. They know they're close. They just have to do it for four quarters."

West Springfield will play its next game against Chantilly on Friday December 17 at 7:30 p.m.