Tyrell Andrews’ 30 points help Heights boys beat North

While Heights boys coach Joe Auer waited on Friday for his team to stretch a big lead to an insurmountable one, his players seemed to be waiting for a chance to exert their dominance again.

The Falcons remained poised as North cut a 15-point second-quarter lead to two in the second half. Then they scored the first 10 points of the fourth quarter on their way to an 85-69 win on the road.

Tyrell Andrews led Heights with 30 points, but several players contributed important baskets to help fend off a North rally led by Kace Vongsakda.

“They were still free and easy,” Auer said. “That’s the thing about this group, apparently – they just have a great time, they have a lot of fun. And I didn’t see a difference in their demeanor when (the lead) got cut to two.”

Andrews was the game’s greatest offensive force, and he may have saved Auer’s voice in the process. Auer calls plenty of plays, shouting them from the sideline, but Andrews is so good at improvising with the ball that sometimes Auer can step out of the way.

Against a zone defense designed to limit desirable spots for dribbling and shooting, Andrews frequently burst through the first wave on the way to the basket. Sometimes Andrews took the easy lane to the basket for himself – he made 12 of 16 shots, and other times he passed to another open player in the paint.

“He was very vertical tonight, which led to a lot of easy baskets for us tonight,” Auer said. “We can run any set you want to run. We ran some good stuff tonight … It was a transition game tonight, it was drive and kick.

“Tyrell is really good at drawing (defenders) and finding, and if you don’t help on him, he’s going to get to the backboard.”

With Andrews at the helm, Heights made 34 of 58 shots, including 28 of 38 two-pointers, and scored at least 20 points in every quarter. The 6-foot senior is becoming a dynamic scorer after averaging about six points last season.

“I noticed that we started to let down before halftime,” Andrews said. “I knew that my team needed me, and we needed to pick it up at that time.”

Heights’ biggest first-half lead was 31-16, but it shrunk to 44-42 less than three minutes into the third quarter. Vongsakda made four of his six three-pointers in the third quarter.

North was more patient against Heights’ zone, with two third-quarter turnovers after committing eight in the first half. That and Heights’ 32-23 rebounding edge kept North from capitalizing on 52-percent shooting.

Andrews scored half of his points in the second half, but Heights had several other crucial contributions.

Decquan Richardson scored eight points and had seven offensive rebounds; Devin Davis sank a pair of three pointers; Trenton Driskill had two third-quarter baskets in the midst of North’s comeback.

“We have a lot of kids who can score the ball, and we like to play fast,” Auer said. “We just have to learn how to handle success. We can’t have a lull. It seemed like every time we’d get 16, 17, 18 up, we’d have a letdown. But it’s a young team, an inexperienced team, and I’m just really proud of how they bounced back.”

This story was originally published December 16, 2016 at 10:24 PM with the headline "Tyrell Andrews’ 30 points help Heights boys beat North."