Saxons Strip Mead of Undefeated Label

Ferris’ Chris Wilson helped lift Ferris over the Panthers who were previously unbeaten in league play

By Ryan Minnerly

The Saxons boys basketball team tripped up the Mead Panthers in Tuesday’s game at Ferris. Mead was previously undefeated in the GSL and had beaten G Prep, a foe that proved to be too much for Ferris early in the season. The Scarlet and Silver were led by their youngest player, sophomore Chris Wilson. Wilson was the leading scorer with 17 points, and acquired 12 of those in the third quarter. His scoring in the third quarter was perhaps the biggest factor in the lead change that favored the Saxons.

Mead was in control for most of the first half of the game. Ferris was down 7 points with a few minutes remaining in the second period of play, and were able to draw themselves within 3 points of the Panthers. However, Mead maintained their lead, though the point difference between the teams fluctuated. With about five or six seconds remaining before intermission and Mead up by just four points, Panther guard Bo Tully hit a three-pointer to boost the visiting team’s lead to seven. The score at the halfway point was 27-20 in favor of Mead.

Ferris opened the second half with somewhat of a run on offense. They took the lead at one point in the third quarter with a three-pointer, but unfortunately for the home team, their long range shot was answered on the other end of the court. Mead hit a three directly following the shot that gave the Saxons the lead, and thus the Panthers usurped the advantage on the scoreboard. But Ferris did not become discouraged by the resilience of the visiting Panthers. With a few minutes left in the third quarter of play, Wilson drained a three, and repeated the same thing on the following offensive possession for Ferris. The sophomore drained back-to-back shots from downtown to give Ferris a 34-30 lead as the final quarter drew nearer.

From there, Ferris turned on the jets. They slowly but surely extended their lead to as many as 9 points and maintained control of the game. The final score was 47-41 with Ferris emerging victorious. The Saxons profited from the return of junior Taylor Kamitomo as well. This was Kamitomo’s first game back from a wrist injury. He put up eight points and racked in seven second-half rebounds for Ferris. Chris Wilson amassed 12 of his game total 17 points by hitting 4 three-pointers throughout the course of the game. He was one of two Saxons to score in the double digits, and was joined by junior Grant Livingston. Grant hit a pair of threes and attained 10 points on the game. Another big factor in the game was the lack of authority from Mead’s Aaron Dunn. Dunn was expected to be a force down low, and with his size, maybe should have been a top scorer against the not-so-giant Saxons.  Ferris executed spectacularly on defense and limited Dunn’s influence in the game. The Panther center scored most of his 9 points early in the first quarter of the contest, but was relatively quiet for the remainder of the game.

With their victory over Mead, Ferris improves to 2-2 in league (4-5 overall). The Saxons now look forward to Central Valley. The Bears are also 4-5 overall, but are winless in the GSL (0-4). The game will take place Friday at 7:15 at Central Valley. Good luck boys!