Demons impressive down stretch | williamstown-sports

Demons display maturity down stretch to finish season strong

Senior Cameron Varner played some of the best ball of his career late in the season for the Demons and was a big reason for Williamstown's impressive late-season showing.

By Wade Holland

Publisher

Coming into the season as one of the youngest, most inexperienced teams in the region, the Williamstown Demons suffered plenty of growing pains over the course of the season.

But Williamstown also did a lot of growing up over the last three months, which was evident by its performance down the stretch as the Demons dominated Villa Madonna, nearly upset Carroll Co., man-handled Trimble Co., and gave Simon Kenton a legit run for the money in the first-round of the district tournament.

In short, the Demons were a team to be reckoned with as they matured.

"Late in the season we were starting to hit our stride and come into our own," said Williamstown Head Coach Roger Harden. "The emergence of Carter Sarcione, Chris Parsons and Cameron Varner made us a whole new basketball team down the stretch."

Williamstown learns from growing pains to impress late

Williamstown's growth was on full display in the victory over Trimble Co., a team that finished with the fourth most wins in the region this season at 16. The Raiders beat Williamstown by 11 in an earlier meeting, with Williamstown winning the rematch by 15, a 26-point turnaround.

"We came out and played four quarters the way we are capable of playing," Harden said. "We were always in control of the game."

In the win over Trimble Co., Williamstown had four players reach double figures, led by Jon Jump's 25 and Brennan Stanley's 21. The guard duo did much more damage than what is reflected in their scoring.

"Brennan did an exceptional job of controlling the pace of the game for us," said Harden. "We wanted to play an up tempo game and he took care of that. And of course Jon was very effective and gave us a lot of momentum with his three ball."

Varner was next with 16 points and four rebounds, followed by Sarcione with 10 points and 10 rebounds, his second double-double in three games. Parsons chipped in five points and eight rebounds, and Derek Cummins added three points to round out the Demons' scoring.

Varner hit four 3-pointers in the game, with Jump adding three, Stanley and Sarcione two each, and Cummins one.

Williamstown hit 52 percent of its shots in the game, including 48 percent from behind the arch.

Simon Kenton 85, Williamstown 70

Williamstown continued to impress in first round action of the District 32 Tournament by hitting 51 percent of its shots from the field, including 37 percent from three-point land.

But it was not enough against the much older, more experienced, taller squad from Simon Kenton, which is one of the elite programs in the 8th Region.

Jon Jump led all scorers with 30 points, followed by back-court mate Brennan Stanley with 21. Both players hit a pair from 3-point range.

Carter Sarcione had two double-doubles late in the season for Williamstown.

Brady Montgomery was next with seven points, including a pair from long range, while Chris Parsons contributed five, Cameron Varner four, and Carter Sarcione three to round out the Demons' offensive output.

Jump had one of his better offensive performances of the season, hitting 60 percent of his shots on 12-of-20 shooting while hitting four-of-five from the free throw line. Stanley hit 50 percent of his shots on 6-of-12 shooting while also connecting on an impressive seven-of-nine from the charity stripe.

Carroll Co. 56, Williamstown 50

Jon Jump scored 24 points and Brennan Stanley added 13 in a near-upset of Carroll Co., a team that has finished .500 or above each of the last four seasons.

"We had a couple games that slipped away from us this year that we felt we should have won and this game was one of those," said Harden. I thought we played extremely well."

Following Jump and Stanley was Carter Sarcione with six points for Williamstown, followed by Chris Parsons with five and Harold Fernandez with two.

Jump, one of the state's top 3-point shooters, hit six from long range. Stanley and Parsons added one 3-pointer each.

Stanley and Sarcione connected on four-of-six free throw attempts for Williamstown, while Parsons was a perfect two-for-two from the charity stripe.

Sarcione, who just a game earlier finished with a double-double, pulled down nine rebounds against Carroll Co. Parsons was also big under the boards with seven rebounds.

Dustin Smith added four rebounds, followed by Jump with three, Fernandez and Stanley two each, and Cameron Varner with one.