Somerset-Losee boys basketball defeats Cimarron-Memorial

Christin Haylock said the key to his team’s fourth-quarter surge Thursday was not settling for jump shots.

But it was a pair of 3-pointers by Haylock that really turned the tide for Somerset-Losee’s boys basketball team.

Haylock hit a pair of 3s in an 49-second span to help the Lions, No. 1 in the Review-Journal’s Class 4A rankings, rally for a 56-50 road win over No. 5 Cimarron-Memorial.

“Those were some huge 3s,” Somerset-Losee coach Darrius Banks said. “He was the league MVP last year. And he’s a big-time point guard. He’s a winner. Whatever we need to win the game, he’ll figure out a way to do it.”

Thursday night that meant taking over in the fourth quarter. Haylock scored 15 of his game-high 22 points in the final eight minutes as the Lions (16-2) rallied for the win.

Haylock started the quarter by getting to the line and knocking down four free throws.

From there, he extended his game beyond the 3-point line. Haylock’s first 3-pointer tied the game at 38 with 4:46 to play. He then knocked down another 3-pointer to make it 41-38 with 3:57 to go. And though Cimarron (11-7) tied the game at 41, Somerset-Losee never trailed again.

“Just seeing the basket go in, it just got our team going,” Haylock said. “And we just closed it out.”

The Lions didn’t see the ball go in the hoop much in the middle quarters. Somerset-Losee was 1-for-15 from the field in the second quarter as the Spartans rallied to take a 23-15 halftime lead. The Lions were a bit better in the third quarter, going 3-for-11 from the field, but they caught fire in the final quarter, going 8-for-10 from the field and 10-for-12 from the line.

“We just find a way to win,” Banks said. “Defensively, we get after it, and we wear teams down. And that’s basically what it is.”

Malachi Richardson, a 6-foot-5-inch junior post player, helped spark the rally in the third quarter with five points and five rebounds. Then Haylock took over, going 3-for-3 from the field and 7-for-8 from the line in the fourth quarter.

“The free throws, they got my jump shot going,” Haylock said. “Once I saw my jump shot going and the free throws, I extended it out a little bit.”

Richardson added seven points and nine rebounds, and KeSean White had eight points and 11 rebounds for Somerset-Losee, which won its ninth straight game.

Geremiah Rone came off the bench to score 19 points to lead Cimarron, which led by as many as nine points in the third quarter.

Christian Cardona added 11 points and four assists, and Gerald Patterson had 10 points, eight rebounds, five steals and two blocked shots for the Spartans.