The Independence varsity basketball teams faced off against the Olympic Trojans on Tuesday night when the Patriots hosted the Trojans in non-conference contests.

Women’s Game

Olympic 45, Independence 29

The high pressure defense of Olympic helped the Lady Trojans to create more offensive chances in the Lady Trojans road over the Lady Patriots.

Sharonda Smith paced the Lady Patriots with 12 points.  Braylyn Milton also scored in double figures with 10 points.  Natalyah Wilson added 4 points.  Azuria Barrino had 2 points and Ayanna Anderson finished the scoring with 1 point.

The Lady Patriots had a poor shooting night and committed too many turnovers to take the victory.

Indy jumped out to a quick 6-2 lead, but with 4:29 left in the first quarter, the Lady Trojans took the lead after an Indy turnover and an Olympic layup. Olympic never looked back as they went on to defeat the Lady Patriots 45-29.

Olympic          13  6  8  18  –  45

Independence  8  7  2  12  –  29

Men’s Game

Olympic  58, Independence 63

A strong finish to the first half and consistent play in the second led the Patriots to a 63-58 win over the visiting Olympic Trojans on Tuesday night.

In the first quarter the Patriots jumped out to a 14-5  lead.  Strong rebounding and solid ball-handling in the second period enabled Indy to build its lead to 27-13 at halftime.

Olympic made some halftime adjustments and mounted a strong come back in the third quarter outscoring the Patriots 21-17 in the third period.

The Trojans continued their second half rally in the final period by outscoring Indy 24-19.  At one point the Trojans cut Indy’s lead to four points.

Down the stretch Olympic tried to extend the game by fouling on the inbounds pass.  Unfortunately, the Trojans were putting senior Matt Smith on the line.  In those last two minutes, Matt hit 5-of-7 from the free throw line to keep Indy in the lead.  Coach Davis, “I didn’t think Matt was under a lot of pressure.  He has the experience.  He has been in close games and battles before.  Although he didn’t have his best game overall tonight, he was ready in the clutch and that is what we needed.  You got to be ready when your time is called.  You got to be ready to step up and perform.  Matt did that tonight.”

“Tyler Harris stepped up big tonight.  He made some big shots, some timely shots.  Anthony Allen also hit some big shots late in the game.  With this team we never know who is going to step up, and these guys stepped up for us tonight.”

Indy held on to take a 63-58 non-conference win over Olympic.

After the game Indy’s head coach Preston Davis said, “This group has experience, and I believe that the experience paid off tonight.  We never lost our composure. We stayed focused.  After the game I told them that basketball is a game of runs and they are a good team.  They are one of the top teams in Charlotte.  We knew they were going to make a run, and we did a good job of withstanding that and not losing our composure.  It was a good win for us.”

Raja Milton led the Patriots with 15 points, 2 rebounds, 5 assists and 2 steals.  Tyler Harris had a double-double scoring 12 points and grabbing 10 rebounds.  He blocked one shot and came up with one steal.  Matt Smith had 7 fourth quarter points,  7 rebounds, 1 steal and 1 blocked shot.  Anthony Allen and Nygell Verdier had 7 points each.  AJ McKee added 6 points.  Miles Pauldin and Amonti Burton finished the night with 2 points each.

Olympic              5    8  21  24  –  58

Independence  14  13  17  19  –  63