SPRINGFIELD, MASS. -- Having a nationally ranked star player get carried off the court in pain would deflate some teams.
Instead, Winter Park responded.
Austin Rivers, son of Doc Rivers and the fifth-best high school basketball player in the country, according to ESPNRise, left Saturday night’s HoopHall Classic matchup with Gonzaga College High School with an ankle injury, but it didn’t slow down the Wildcats, who won the contest 73-69.
“It just shows that we’re a good team” said Winter Park head coach David Bailey. “Austin’s our only player considered a top player in the country, but we still have some good basketball players on that team that can play college ball at a bunch of different levels.”
Rivers, a junior who is being courted by Florida and Duke, had 21 points before leaving the game with about six minutes remaining, shooting 50 percent from the floor (7-for-14).
He went down hard while trying to split a pair of defenders and did not get up after suffering a left ankle injury.
“It looked like he got pushed from behind a little bit and ended up stepping on the ball and his foot rolled a little bit,” said Bailey.
The status of the injury was unclear after the game, but Rivers left the locker room on crutches with his father.
“I think it’s just an ankle sprain. We’ll know more after we get x-rays,” said Bailey. “But it’s his first time ever spraining an ankle and those are usually the worst.”
Adam Jones and Brett Comer led the team in his absence, scoring 16 and 15 points, respectively. Isaac Turner chipped in with 13 points for a Winter Park team that shot an impressive 54.5percent from the field.
“We are a shooting team,” said Bailey. “We only really have one guy, that being Austin, being able to create his own shot. Everybody else, it’s about movement, it’s about screens and spotting up in corners and that’s what we do a good job of.”
Cedrick Lindsay, who is committed to play for Richmond, had a game-high 21 points. Tyler Thornton, who has signed a letter of intent to play for Duke, netted 18 points.
The two stars combined to take 38 of the team’s 63 attempted shots, but hit just 13 total, indicative of the team’s unappealing 38.1 percent shooting performance.
Despite their struggles, the Eagles held a one-point edge heading into the locker room at 28-27.
But the Wildcats turned up the heat in the second half, hitting an astonishing 65 percent of their shots after the break, even after their standout scorer exited the game.
With the loss, Gonzaga figures to drop even further in the rankings. A loss to St. John's helped drop them from 14th to 20th in ESPNRise's last rankings.
Official Basketball Box Score
Winter Park vs Gonzaga
1/16/10 6:10 pm at Springfield, Mass.
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VISITORS: Winter Park
TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS
## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN
03 Brett Comer......... * 5-10 0-2 5-6 0 4 4 2 15 4 5 1 0 31
22 Isaac Turner........ * 5-9 2-5 1-1 0 3 3 3 13 2 2 0 4 28
24 Adam Jones.......... * 5-6 0-0 6-6 1 5 6 4 16 0 1 3 1 23
25 Austin Rivers....... * 7-14 3-7 4-6 0 4 4 1 21 1 4 0 0 25
35 Robert Lovaglio..... * 0-2 0-0 0-2 1 3 4 2 0 2 5 0 1 26
11 James Ferrell....... 0-1 0-1 0-0 0 2 2 2 0 1 2 0 0 6
33 John David Swanson.. 2-2 2-2 2-2 0 3 3 2 8 0 0 0 0 12
34 Alexander Carpousis. 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 9
TEAM................ 1 3 4
Totals.............. 24-44 7-17 18-23 3 28 31 17 73 10 19 4 7 159
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 11-24 45.8% 2nd Half: 13-20 65.0% Game: 54.5% DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 0-7 0.0% 2nd Half: 7-10 70.0% Game: 41.2% REBS
F Throw % 1st Half: 5-7 71.4% 2nd Half: 13-16 81.3% Game: 78.3% 2
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HOME TEAM: Gonzaga
TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS
## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN
01 Tyler Thornton...... * 8-21 2-7 0-0 2 1 3 4 18 2 4 1 2 31
03 Cedrick Lindsay..... * 5-17 2-3 9-10 1 5 6 3 21 4 5 0 2 29
04 Cahli Thomas........ * 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 4 4 1 0 0 2 0 1 17
15 Malcolm Lemmons..... * 3-7 0-0 4-4 0 2 2 4 10 2 0 0 1 26
42 Oliver Ellison...... * 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 8
11 Nate Britt.......... 3-6 0-0 0-0 2 3 5 4 6 2 2 0 2 20
20 Ben Dickinson....... 0-2 0-0 0-0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 4
24 Malek Williams...... 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 1
34 Kris Jenkins........ 5-9 0-2 4-4 1 4 5 1 14 0 0 0 1 24
TEAM................ 5 5
Totals.............. 24-63 4-12 17-18 12 20 32 19 69 10 13 1 9 160
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 9-33 27.3% 2nd Half: 15-30 50.0% Game: 38.1% DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 2-6 33.3% 2nd Half: 2-6 33.3% Game: 33.3% REBS
F Throw % 1st Half: 8-8 100 % 2nd Half: 9-10 90.0% Game: 94.4% 0
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Officials:
Technical fouls: Winter Park-None. Gonzaga-None.
Attendance:
Score by Periods 1st 2nd 3rd 4th Total
Winter Park................... 15 12 19 27 - 73
Gonzaga....................... 12 16 11 30 - 69
2010 Spalding HoopHall Classic
MVP - Austin Rivers
MOP - Tyler Thornton
Points in the paint-WNTRPARK 32,GONZAGA 32. Points off turnovers-WNTRPARK 10,GONZAGA 18.
2nd chance points-WNTRPARK 2,GONZAGA 10. Fast break points-WNTRPARK 6,GONZAGA 4.
Bench points-WNTRPARK 8,GONZAGA 20. Score tied-6 times. Lead changed-9 times.
Last FG-WNTRPARK 4th-01:12, GONZAGA 4th-00:28.
Largest lead-WNTRPARK by 10 3rd-02:04, GONZAGA by 4 1st-05:50.
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