Faith Christian conquers Hilltop Christian

Published in Sports on January 4, 2006 2:12 PM

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The Faith Christian Academy boy's team remained unbeaten and captured their ninth win of the season Tuesday night with a convincing 74-52 win over Hilltop Christian Academy.

The Faith girls outscored Hilltop 15-0 in the third quarter and improved their record to 7-2 with an impressive 37-21 victory over the Lady Chargers.

Hilltop elected to play a man-to-man defense and paid dearly.

"I had rather teams play us man," said Faith Christian coach Jeff Stocks. "I don't think they can match up with us, I think we were a little quicker than they were."

Faith wasted little time and ran to a 12-7 lead early and finished the first quarter ahead by nine points. Hilltop scored its first basket of the second quarter at the four-minute mark. Faith Christian had no such lapses and pushed its lead to 25-9 and led by 19 at halftime.

"We used our height and set our picks and ran our offense well-when we do that we are a hard team to guard," said Stokes.

Faith Christian's T.J. Sasser scored 18 of his game-high 24 points in the first half and sat out most of the fourth quarter. Hilltop had no one who could stop the crafty point guard from penetrating and scoring easy lapups. Aaron Sladick threw in 16 points and was a tower on the boards all night long. Joe Brannon scored 11 points and also had an outstanding game on the glass. Faith Christian roared ahead by 30 points after three quarters of play. The Conqueror reserves played admirably in the fourth quarter and 10 players cracked the scoring column for Faith Christian.

Hilltop was led in scoring by Justin Jones with 20 points followed by Caleb Taylor with 16.

The Faith Christian girls played well into the second quarter before committing their first turnover and used the flawless ball handling to grab a 10-4 lead after one quarter of play. Hilltop warmed up from the field in the second quarter with three 3-point field goals to salvage a 17-17 tie at halftime.

Conquerors coach Eddie Smith made adjustments at the break.

"We emphasized their two players who hit the threes in the third quarter and we rebounded the ball well all night long," said Smith, whose team collected 15 third-quarter points. "We usually have about 25 turnovers a game but we took real good care of the ball tonight."

Hilltop used two timeouts in the third quarter however they were unable to slow the Lady Conquerors down. Five different Faith Christian players scored and the Chargers couldn't overcome the deficit.

Elizabeth Clarke and Natalie Thibeaux each scored nine points for Faith Christian.

The Charger's Kelly Hawley led all scorers with 11 points.

"We have started off the season better than we have in three years." said Smith. "Our goal is to make the state playoffs this year. We only have one senior starting so the future is bright for us."

Girls game

Hilltop Christian 4 13 0 4 -- 21

Faith Christian 10 7 15 5 -- 37

HILLTOP CHRISTIAN (0-3)

Jessie Green 1 2 0-0 8, Stacie Jones 1 0 0-0 2, Kelly Hawley 4 1 0-0 11, Dawn Weaver 0 0 0-1 0. TOTALS -- 6 3 0-1 21.

FAITH CHRISTIAN (7-2)

Elizabeth Clarke 3 1 0-0 9, Ren'ee Provencal 1 0 0-1 2, Lindsey Godwin 1 0 1-2 3, Katie Best 1 0 0-0 2, Alyssa Hill 3 0 0-0 6, Natalie Thibeaux 4 0 1-2 9, Amie Hill 3 0 0-0 6. TOTALS -- 16 1 2-5 37.

Three-point goals -- Hilltop 3 (Green 2, Hawley), Faith 1 (Clarke). Total fouls -- Hilltop 7, Faith 10. Turnovers -- Hilltop 22, Faith 13. Fouled out -- none. Technical fouls -- none.

Boys game

Hilltop Christian 9 11 12 20 -- 52

Faith Christian 18 22 22 12 -- 74

HILLTOP CHRISTIAN (4-5)

Ethan Gaynor 6 0 4-5 16, Derrick Green 1 0 0-2 2, Josh Ammons 2 0 0-0 4, Justin Jones 6 2 2-2 20, Jason Huff 0 0 1-4 1, Christian Knox 1 0 0-0 2, Zack Gaynor 2 1 0-0 7. TOTALS -- 18 3 7-13 52.

FAITH CHRISTIAN (9-0)

TJ Sasser 8 2 2-2 24, Aaron Sladick 7 0 2-2 16, John Spencer 1 0 1-2 3, Jonathan McNeese 2 0 1-2 5, Josh Brannon 5 0 1-1 11, Ryan Riley 1 0 0-0 2, Taylor Stocks 3 0 0-0 6, Jeremy Sandlin 1 0 0-0 2, Chad Corbett 1 0 1-1 3, Blake Plummer 1 0 0-0 2. TOTALS -- 30 2 8-10 74.

Three-point goals -- Hilltop 3, (Jones 2, Zack Gaynor), Faith 2 (Sasser 2). Total fouls -- Hilltop 9, Faith 15. Turnovers -- Hilltop 10, Faith 9. Fouled out -- none. Technical fouls -- none.