Rampart Defeats Fountain Fort Carson in Low Scoring Affair 50-40
By Jon Miller
2/2/2018
Colorado Springs, CO – The Rampart Rams Defeated the Fountain Fort Carson Trojans on Friday night in boys 5A Colorado Springs Metro League Action 50-40. Both teams struggled to put points on the board from the opening tip, partially due to collapsing defense down low and poor shooting.
The Rams led after one quarter 12-5 only to see the Trojans cut the lead to one 19-18 at the break. Neither team could get a bucket to drop in the low scoring first half.
“The first half we were getting our shot. We shot 24% and they were shots at the basket, so I can’t complain about that.” Rampart coach Jon St. Clair said of his teams shooting woes. “I just thought we were trying to finesse so much to avoid their shot blocker and athleticism. We told our guys that we had to keep attacking and finish our layups.”
The Trojans started the second half without their starting big man Rashon Barron, who rolled his ankle in the first half. Barron came out of the locker room and sat the bench with ice on his ankle for the remainder of the game.
Even without Barron down low, the Rams continued to struggle getting points on the board. The only consistency was Ramparts Dawson Carper. The senior was one of two players in double digits for either team, scoring a game high 20 points. The Trojans could not find an answer for him as he continued to outrebound the Trojans for put back baskets.
Despite Carpers put backs and Barron on the bench, the Rams were unable to pull away against the feisty Trojans until late in the fourth quarter. Up 40-35, the Rams went on a 10-5 run to close out the game in the 50-40 victory.
“We started pressing more and we got more steals out of that, so we became more active.” Carper said of the Rams second half. “We had more steals for transition buckets. We shot something like 40% in the second half, it was better than the first half, but it is still a pretty bad overall average.”
Josh Kavalec was the only other player in double digits, scoring 12 points for the Rams. Ten of his 12 came in the second half.
The Rams avenged their earlier loss to the Fountain Fort Carson, but head coach J’on St. Clair was not satisfied with his team’s performance.
“I was a little disappointed to be honest because I thought we played a little selfish tonight and that was frustrating.” St. Clair said of his team’s performance. “We’ve got four games to get ourselves to playing together as a group, so we can do some good things in the playoffs.”
Next week will not get any easier for the Rams as they will face Liberty and league leader Doherty.
