LMS Tigers flatten Fayetteville

On Monday night, the Lewisburg Middle School Tigers (7-0) once again ran amok on the basketball court, as they crushed Fayetteville Middle School 65-23 on the road to remain undefeated.

After defeating FMS 59-21 in their last encounter on Nov. 15, the Tigers turned in another dominant performance in Monday's contest and built a 31-12 lead in the first half before outscoring Fayetteville 34-11 over the final two quarters to roll to the 42-point victory.

Bolstered by a 14-of-25 shooting performance in the second half, Lewisburg shot 48 percent (29-of-60) from the field overall, which included a 4-of-14 effort from three-point range. The Tigers also committed just nine turnovers, outrebounded FMS 30-24, and held a 16-10 edge on the offensive glass.

Best night

Point guard D'Andre Brown spearheaded Lewisburg's offensive attack by pouring in a career high 27 points on 13-of-22 shooting to go along with seven rebounds and six steals.

"I was very happy with the way that D'Andre pushed the ball in transition. He scored some points, but he also made some real nice passes," said Tiger coach David Lovell.

Jay Howard followed Brown with 12 points, nine rebounds, and four steals, and Caleb Fields tallied six points and three steals. Dayveonte Brown and Keevon Maxwell notched five points apiece as well, while Tre Crutcher had four points. J.Q. Haislip and Tre Fields both chipped in three points for Lewisburg as well.

Fayetteville, conversely, mustered just 11 field goals on 26 percent shooting and committed 29 turnovers.

Akoyai Dyer, Mikael Buchanan, and Cain McWilliams each scored six points to pace FMS, while Worth Watson and Zakyus Tate added three and two points respectively.

Early jump

The Tigers pounced on Fayetteville early and jumped out to a 12-4 lead late in the first quarter with the help of six points from D'Andre Brown and baskets from Crutcher, Caleb Fields, and Howard.

FMS narrowed the gap to 12-8 with 1:35 left in the first period on layups by Dyer and Buchanan, but Lewisburg responded with a 12-0 spurt behind six points from D'Andre Brown and four points from Howard to open up a 24-8 advantage early in the second quarter.

After Dyer hit a short jumper to trim the deficit to 24-10, the Tigers outscored Fayetteville 7-2 over the final 3:31 of the first half with the aid of four points from D'Andre Brown to push their lead to 31-12 at the break.

FMS notched the first five points of the second half to close the gap to 32-17, but Lewisburg promptly put down the hammer and hit Fayetteville with a 26-2 run on the strength of 12 points from Brown and a pair of treys from Haislip and Maxwell to forge a 57-19 lead early in the fourth quarter.

Attitude change

"We actually didn't play as well as we wanted to for the first two and a half quarters of the game and our players knew it. I think the guys decided that it was time to play like we're capable of and just turned it on," said Lovell.

Following a short jumper by Buchanan, which trimmed the deficit to 57-21, the Tigers rattled off eight straight points thanks to Maxwell layup and a couple of threes from Dayveonte Brown and Tre Fields to stretch their lead to 65-21 before coasting to the 65-23 triumph.