Jacksonville, AL – Fort Payne sophomore Luke Stephens outscores Piedmont’s Alex Odam 37-22 in matchup of dynamic players, Wildcats win by 11
By Al Muskewitz
The game gave fans one last guaranteed chance to see Piedmont’s Alex Odam on the floor he’s going to call home in college for the next four years, but it turned out he was upstaged by a No. 1 on the other side. Fort Payne sophomore Luke Stephens, who also wears No. 1, scored 25 points in the first half and 37 in the game to lead his team past the Bulldogs 72-61 in Jacksonville State’s Pete Mathews Coliseum. Odam had 22 for Piedmont.
“It was the two best players on the floor pushing each other and both had to learn how to create against a really good defender, a good basketball player, and I think it brought out the best in both of them,” Fort Payne coach Michael Banks said. “Luke plays his best games against better competition and guys who really push him.” Stephens has been on a tear of late. He scored 35 points against Cherokee County Tuesday night, 29 against Douglas the game before that and 19 against Oxford in the game before that. He had 19 points in the first quarter against Piedmont.
“He’s just a good player,” Bulldogs coach JoJo Odam said. “We knew he was good. I’ve seen him play in some fall leagues, I’m seen him play a lot of places. Our effort wasn’t there. We didn’t want to guard in the first quarter, so we tried to go to zone, tried to mix it up and they stayed hot. In the second half we finally started getting after it, starting mashing them with some effort.” If the crowd came to see a one-on-one matchup between the two No. 1s, they got their wish in the third quarter, but not necessarily by design.
After Stephens outscored the whole Bulldogs’ team by himself in the first half, JoJo implored somebody on his team to pick up the defense, not just on Stephens but all of the Wildcats. Alex obliged and for the next eight minutes the two players spent their time in close proximity to each other. “We just told them somebody’s got to guard him,” JoJo said. “They talked about it in the huddle. It was either (Alex) or Ish (Bethel). Somebody’s gonna have to guard him. Somebody’s going to have to show some effort and get after them in the second half.”
It worked. Odam held his opposite number to five points in the third, but scored only six himself. “He played good the first half,” Alex said. “We knew we were going to have to put a little more pressure on him the second half. I just wanted to try to keep him to as little as possible.” Stephens called it “a good experience” going against Odam. He also knew if the Bulldogs concentrated on him it would create opportunities for his teammates. Nolan Fowler had 11 points and Carter Tinker added 10. Rollie Pinto was Piedmont’s second leading scorer with 17 points. Bethel had 11 with three 3-pointers. [read more…]
