By Tom Waddill
For about two minutes Tuesday, the Hornets looked like a team playing its season opener.
The rest of the night, Huntsville looked a lot like the teams that have won three consecutive district championships and made thrilling runs in the Class 4A state basketball playoffs.
The Hornets did it all Tuesday in a thorough 74-49 trouncing of Class 5A Lufkin. They ran the floor, played defense, hit long-range bombs and posted up inside against a big and strong Lufkin team that has been picked to win its district this season.
In their first official outing, the Hornets had only 11 turnovers and they outrebounded Lufkin 45-31.
“I liked that,” Hornets coach Larry Carlson said of his team’s debut. “It was kind of a surprise, but we played pretty well tonight.”
Senior Jeremy Laday poured in 27 points and ripped down 11 rebounds for the Hornets, who play at home again Friday against Alief Hastings.
Classmate James Driscoll added 20 points and six boards, while junior Jason Nwisienyi scored six points with eight rebounds and senior Adrian Boudreaux tossed in eight points with three rebounds.
Junior Michael Jones scored six points for Huntsville and senior Marvin Dunbar added four points and six boards. Sophomore Kriston Minor scored three with two rebounds.
Jadarius Davis, a 6-7 senior post, scored 21 points for the Panthers, but he had only seven rebounds. Eleven of his points came from the free-throw line, too.
“Davis is no light load down on the block,” Carlson said. “We needed that to break in our big guys. Brady (Nichols) came in and played some good defense for us. Michael Jones gave us some good minutes and Nwisienyi showed some good signs, blocking shots and blocking out.”
After having trouble with the Panthers’ full-court press and falling behind 6-0 in the first two minutes of the game, the Hornets settled down and started lighting up the scoreboard.
Driscoll got Huntsville going when he hustled for an offensive rebound and scored. A minute later, the 6-5 forward hit the first of his four 3-pointers and that seemed to spark the Hornets’ offense.
“I know people had some jitters,” Driscoll said. “Boudreaux told me he almost missed a layup because he was nervous. But once we started playing, we settled down and got after them.”
By the end of the opening period, Huntsville had shot out to a 19-12 lead. At halftime, the Hornets stretched their advantage to 11 points, and by the end of three, the game was decided at 51-28.
Laday hurt Lufkin in a lot of ways. He used his quickness to break the Panthers’ press. He leaped high to grab rebounds and swat a shot. And like most of his teammates, he was hot shooting the ball.
“We shot the ball very well,” said Laday, who missed Saturday’s four-team scrimmage because he was running in the state cross country meet. “We got some good wide-open looks and we knocked them down.”
Driscoll added, “We didn’t shoot with any hesitation. Our young guys, if they were open they shot it.”
Carlson was glad to see all of his players get the season off to such a strong start.
“Having Jeremy here was different because he’s so hard to guard,” Carlson said. “And when Driscoll’s hitting shots, that opens things up for us. You have to guard him out on the perimeter.
“The thing that really pleases me is we’re still missing seven guys,” the coach said of the Hornets who are still playing football. “Hopefully when those guys get up here we can keep this going and be that much more athletic. ... We’ve got a lot of work to do, but this was a good step in the right direction.”
