TRACY – Lathrop overcame a slow start and poor free-throw shooting Tuesday night to make 16 of 17 free throws in the second half and run away with a 69-58 non-league boys basketball road win over Tracy at Swenson Gym.

“Free throws have been a challenge for us in all our games,” Spartans coach Robin Hong said. “But we have been practicing on it more and more and we tell the kids that they are going to shoot it anyway, so shoot it with the utmost confidence.”

Ahmad Jacquet was a perfect 10 for 10 from the line in the second half for Lathrop (4-4) and finished with 14 points and nine rebounds.  

“It’s always been a routine shooting in my back yard so I am immune to the pressure on free throws,” Jacquet said. “I had to turn it around and execute for my team when they needed it the most.”

The Spartans started the third quarter on a 6-0 run and ended it on an 8-2 spurt, turning a 32-28 deficit into a 53-47 lead. The Bulldogs (4-8) never led again.

Camryn Hayes hit a huge pair of 3-pointers in the third period for the Spartans and finished with 13 points. 

“Early on we weren’t executing the offense very well,” Hayes said. “Then we started to execute and the shots started to fall.

“Basketball is a game of runs and we got our run late in the third quarter and I like how we brought the energy into the fourth quarter to seal the game.”

Lathrop’s Napolean Reeves led all scorers with 20 points behind 11 points in the big Spartans third period.

“We started off a little slow,” Reeves said. “But as the game progresses you want to get a little bit better in each quarter so you don’t have to fight in the fourth quarter.”

Another part of the third quarter surge for the Spartans was outrebounding Tracy 9-3 in the period.

“We made a halftime adjustment to go from a man to a zone,” Hong said. “One of our kryptonites in the man defense has been fouling, not initially from the on-ball defender but from the outside coming in to help.

“We had to emphasize that in the zone it is harder to rebound so we had to crash the boards with intensity.”

Lathrop finished with eight turnovers.

“Our goal for the game was less than 10 turnovers,” Hong said. “We knew this was a team that likes to apply on-ball pressure and we executed well against that, especially during crunch time.

“We have had to remind the team that as good as they are individually, we cannot reach our ceiling, our full potential unless we all commit to playing as a team.”

Malcom Akamien led Tracy with 17 points. D.J. Jones and Michael McCreary added 12 points apiece.

The Spartans face Marysville on Thursday at 7 p.m. at Golden 1 Center in Sacramento.   

Junior varsity

Tracy 43, Tracy 33

The game ended with four minutes left in the fourth quarter due to a natural gas scare.

Bobby Cotton and Chris Ramos led the Spartans with 10 points apiece.

Freshmen

Tracy 65, Lathrop 33

Cayden Phaing led the Spartans with 12 points.