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Williamstown cruises past Ravenswood, 61-35

Williamstown’s Parker Schramm finishes a dunk during Tuesday’s game against Ravenswood. (Photo by Mike Morrison)

WILLIAMSTOWN — The Williamstown Yellowjackets shot just 50 percent from the free throw line in Tuesday night’s rematch with the visiting Ravenswood Red Devils.

That is about the only negative thing you could say about the ‘Jackets’ performance as they rolled to a 61-35 victory to complete a season sweep of the Mick Price-coached Devils.

Williamstown shot a blistering 74 percent from the floor (26-of-35) and forced Ravenswood into 17 turnovers on defense as they improved to 12-3 on the season.

To make the night even more special, Williamstown senior Jayden Bryant kicked things off by scoring the 1,000th point of his outstanding Yellowjacket career.

It wouldn’t take Bryant long at all to join the 1,000-point club as after he missed a three-pointer on his first shot of the game he was the recipient of an assist from fellow senior Parker Schramm to cross the century mark for the game’s first two points.

Williamstown’s Cruz Isaly attacks the basket during Tuesday’s game against Ravenswood. (Photo by Mike Morrison)

“It’s just a milestone along the way and I’m happy about it but the biggest goal is to win,” said Bryant, who finished the game 5-of-7 from the floor. “I was talking to Cruz (Isaly) our point guard who has like 700 assists and it made me think about how many of those helped me get to a 1,000. Like Coach (Scott Sauro) said in the locker room it’s not a personal goal, it’s more like a team one because you couldn’t get 1,000 by yourself.”

Early on the Red Devils looked like they might be much more of a match for the ‘Jackets than they were back on Dec. 17 when Williamstown opened their season with a 50-36 win in Ravenswood.

The Devils led 13-10 paced by a pair of triples in the early going by Kelan Lucas.

Williamstown would tie the game when Schramm knocked down a triple and then took the lead when he assisted a Wyatt Powell two-pointer after coming up with one of his seven steals in the game.

Schramm kicked off the second quarter with another steal and bucket to extend the lead to four.

Lucas answered with a two-pointer for Ravenswood but the ‘Jackets were about to kick things into high gear.

Williamstown went on a 15-4 run sparked by eight points by Cruz Isaly to turn the two-point lead into a 13-point advantage with less than a minute to play in the half.

Ravenswood managed to shave a point off of the ‘Jackets lead as they trailed 33-21 at the intermission.

Williamstown made 14-of-19 shot attempts in the first half , including 13-of-15 from inside the arc.

“We really have been moving the ball well and I was proud of them because Coach Price ran a defense at us that we haven’t seen all year,” said Sauro. “I thought we executed well and guys were unselfish and sharing the ball.”

The two long-time rivals traded buckets to begin the second half but the ‘Jackets followed with a run that would blow things wide open.

Lynken Joy’s score off of an assist from Isaly got things started and Bryant followed with three straight scores including a step-back three to stretch the lead to 20.

Isaly and Tyler Keiser added back-to-back field goals before Schramm brought the crowd to its feet with a thunderous one-handed dunk over a Ravenswood defender off of a drive on the baseline that resulted in a three-point play.

“I haven’t seen a play like that in this gym for maybe 21 years,” said an impressed Sauro. “It was an incredible play for sure.”

The Yellowjackets completed an 18-0 run on an Isaly two-pointer to vault their lead to 53-24.

“I think the key was our pressure and how it kind of wore them down a bit,” said Sauro. “We thought that they would be better against the press this game than they were the last but we thought if we kept it up by the second quarter and the third quarter it would start to where on them a little bit and it did.”

The big lead allowed Sauro to get plenty of playing time the rest of the way for almost everyone on his team as 10 different ‘Jacket players scored at least a point.

Bryant led the way for the winners with 13 points while Schramm and Isaly added a dozen apiece.

Sauro reflected on what Bryant has meant to the ‘Jacket program over the past four years.

“He has meant the world to our program and he is a tireless worker and really talented kid,” said Sauro of Bryant. “As big as he is he is able to shoot

the ball and over the last two years he’s really expanded his game and become a very complete basketball player. As hard as he has worked he really deserves a nice accolade like that.”

Bryant feels like the depth the ‘Jackets possess was the difference in the game and is going to make them a very tough team to handle with tournament time approaching.

“We were a little stagnant in the first quarter but we are tough to beat when we are unselfish,” said Bryant. “Our best offense is when we get points in transition and we are a pretty deep team so we know if we run for four quarters they aren’t going to be able to run with us.”

Lucas led the way for Ravenswood (10-3) with 11 points while Evan Swain added eight points and six boards.

Williamstown will be back in action Thursday when they travel to Tyler Consolidated.

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