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By: Brian Smith

With Haiden Harper scoring 18 of his game-high 22 points during the first half, the visiting Lee-Scott Warriors defeated the LaFayette Bulldogs 75 to 63. Harper was the man running point and being a menace.

LaFayette head coach Chase Lewis was asked about the Lee-Scott junior guard, and he did not hesitate to provide praise.

“Harper is one of the best players in the state (of Alabama),” Lewis said without hesitation. “That’s why I wanted to play Lee-Scott. They have a young man who’s a next-level player.

“He did a good job with his teammates and everything, even though he did shoot and score a lot, Harper controlled the whole game from start to finish.”

Harper’s darting moves to the basket were a problem when he wanted to pad his own scoring numbers, but as Lewis alluded to, he also created shots for teammates with good ball handling and decision-making. Harper kept an aggressive LaFayette trapping defense off-balance for much of the contest.

“He dictated when his teammates got shots,” Lewis admitted. Indeed Harper did, including a few uncontested shots at point-blank range after dribbling past the defender guarding him. Throughout the contest, LaFayette battled no matter the score.

Leading the Bulldogs in scoring was Jordan Johnson with 20 points, while Julian Robinson came off the bench with 12. Similar to Harper, Johnson’s ability to get into the lane and create shots for himself and his teammates allowed LaFayette to hang around for much of the game.

As the LaFayette team begins to gel this season, look for Johnson’s deft shooting touch to be a key reason for success. As for slowing down Lee-Scott’s offense on Tuesday, that was not an easy task.

The Warriors came out with a full-court press and attempted to get the ball out of Harper’s hands as much as possible. It worked, sort of. Lee-Scott’s ball handling was good overall. Even when Harper was out of the game or not running a play, the Bulldogs did a good job of running their offense, including momentum-changing jump shots.

For the game, the Bulldogs knocked down five 3-point shots. Many of those were due to unselfish passes as they swung the ball around the top of the key and dished off to open shooters off of dribble drives.

At halftime, Lee-Scott led 40 to 34. That lead quickly ballooned to double digits in the third quarter before a mini-run by LaFayette cut the deficit to 61 to 52 heading into the final stanza. Perhaps LaFayette’s biggest defensive problem was not always getting a hand up on open Lee-Scott shooters. Lewis knew that was an area that must be corrected.

“I expected to be a good defensive team, but we didn’t play good defense at all today. That shocked me more than anything. I didn’t know how bad we were playing defense.”

While LaFayette was taking some great shots, it wasn’t a good day for shots to fall. Too many of their misses led to Lee-Scott getting out on the break for open looks of their own.

“We took some shots that we actually wanted to take. They just didn’t fall.”

Next up for the Bulldogs is a Wednesday home contest against Auburn at 7 p.m. CT.