SALT LAKE CITY — Murray’s junior-laden squad has proved itself to be a quick study this season.
Perfect through its first three games, Murray backed it up with a fourth-straight victory to open the season Wednesday by rolling past short-handed East 60-48.
Cold shooting the first few games forced the Spartans to grind out victories, but that wasn’t the case at East. Seven different players combined to make 12 3-pointers — 10 in the first half — as Murray built an early double-digit lead and never let it dip below a dozen the rest of the way.
“That’s who we are and those are the type of players we have and they put so much time in. We’re more than capable of it,” said Murray coach Jason Workman.
Leading 8-7 midway through the first quarter, 10 of Murray’s next 11 field goals before halftime were all 3-pointers as it stretched the lead to 40-22.
During a 3 1/2 minute stretch in the first and second quarter the Spartans drained 3-pointers on six of seven possessions.
Without a true post player, Murray will inevitably take a ton of 3's this season, and Wednesday they were dropping. Considering the potential mismatch going up against East 7-foot-2 big man Mark Jackson, Workman said the streaky shooting came at the perfect time.
“It was a good night to have our offense on, 'cause that would be a hard game to win with just defense because of the mismatch,” he said.
East was always going to have a hard time winning with second-leading scorer Dacian Spotted Elk sitting out with a concussion sustained last week. Without him, along with injured guard Jordan Sutton, the Leopards lacked scoring on the perimeter and Murray was completely content to sag its defense on Jackson all night.
Jackson still managed to score 15 points, but he tired quickly facing constant double- and triple-teams.
Despite the large early hole, East continued to grind away offensively and defensively.
Late in the third quarter East’s Ryan Hulburt and Blake Hansen scored on consecutive possessions, cutting the deficit to 48-36. Murray’s Tyranny Pace, however, immediately responded with one of his three 3-pointers and followed it with a steal and layup stretching the lead back to 53-36.
Pace led Murray with 12 points, while AJ Hodges added 11 points on three 3's of his own.
The Spartans wrap up a busy three-game week this Friday against rival Taylorsville, and Workman is excited with how the team is progressing after a couple of ugly early games.
“Now I think we’re kind of where I thought we’d be. We’re not where we want to end up, but this is where I expected us to be, which is on course to be good,” said Workman.