The inexperience of the Laurel High boys basketball team showed in a 65-61 nonsection loss at Rochester.

“The whole game in itself, our inexperience did us in,” Spartans coach Ken Locke said. “I didn’t do a very good job. We didn’t play a very good game. It was poorly coached and poorly played.”

Laurel (2-7) led 20-12 after the first quarter, but wasn’t able to maintain the momentum later in the game.
“It was a close one most of the way,” Locke said. “We had a little bit of a lead early. We let them back in it. We didn’t play real well. In the end, they were able to get away from us.”

Jacob Wilson paced the Spartans with 18 points. Josh Finley was next with 14 and a team-high 12 rebounds. He shot 6 of 10 from the free-throw line.

“All his free throws were in the fourth quarter,” Locke said. “We want him doing that on a consistent basis. We need to see him at the line a lot in the fourth.”

Josh Dando had 12 points with a team leading two 3-pointers.

“Dando has been playing with good effort and being a leader for us. He’s been doing that for us consistently,” Locke said. “He’s been doing a lot of things that don’t necessarily show up in the statistics. He’s a very unselfish player.”