Northlake Christian School junior Carter Fitzgerald registered a double-double Monday night with a game high 17 points and 13 rebounds to lead the Wolverines to a convincing 57-18 non-district home victory over the Ecole Classique Spartans.

NCS moved to 2-0, while Ecole Classique fell to 1-2.

Fitzgerald made his presence felt early, scoring eight points in the opening quarter. He finished with eight offensive boards as he helped control the glass for the Wolverines.

NCS'€™ Will Werner goes strong to the hole for a lay up against Ecole Classique in the first quarter of Monday night'€™s game played at NCS. The Wolverines cruised past the Spartans 57-18. (Staff Photo by Mike Pervel)

“We just wanted to come out and play our game. We did a good job executing our offense. We wanted to work on our motion offense and our rebounding. I was able to put the ball in the hole when I needed to,” Fitzgerald said.

At the beginning of the game, NCS was hit with a technical foul because a player was seen dunking the ball by officials during warm-ups at half time of the Lady Wolverines’ game.

Ecole Classique missed both free throw attempts and, after being given possession, failed to hit on its first shot from the field.

NCS senior point guard Josh Ryan set the early tone, tallying nine points in the opening period.

He scored the Wolverines first six points as he connected on back-to-back treys to give NCS a 6-0 lead at the 6:36 mark. Will Werner then scored on a lay up for an 8-0 advantage.

“If I’m open I’m going to take the shot. We just tried to hit our open shots. We ran our offense pretty well. Everything was going for us, and our shots were falling,” Ryan said.

Ryan felt his Wolverines did a good job on the boards blocking out.

Ecole Classique’s David Scheuermann, who finished with five points, put the Spartans on the board with a short jumper at the 5:52 mark. NCS then took charge, going on an 11-0 run to take a 19-2 lead. Fitzgerald tallied six points during the stretch.

Fitzgerald’s put back on a missed shot with 1:58 to go in the first quarter gave the Wolverines a 17-point margin.

NCS’ smothering defense held Ecole Classique scoreless for four minutes and 40 seconds before Tyler Hyde hit a jumper with 1:12 left in the quarter.

NCS’ Werner and Fitzgerald added baskets to give the Wolverines an insurmountable 25-4 lead.

The Wolverines outscored the Spartans 11-5 in the second quarter to build a 36-9 halftime margin. Josh Seale delivered four points for the Wolverines in the quarter, followed by Fitzgerald with three.

Ecole’s Josh Latino, who led the Spartans with seven points, scored four of his points in the second quarter.

NCS coach Andy Allen substituted in five new players with 4:32 remaining in the third quarter. The Wolverines tallied eight points in the quarter, holding the Spartans to seven. NCS led 44-16 entering the fourth quarter.

NCS reeled off 10 straight points with Fitzgerald scoring four points on a basket and two free throws, while Alex Reed added two baskets. Eighth-grader Dane Landry, who saw significant playing time in the fourth quarter, finished with five points, including a three-pointer late in the game to close out the scoring.

Allen said his club was able to take advantage of its superior height.

“We got off to a pretty quick start with Josh (Ryan) hitting those threes. When we got the big lead we backed it down a bit trying to run some motion offense. We wanted to work on that and got the opportunity,” Allen said.

Allen said it was good to get some of the younger players involved to gain valuable experience.

NCS competes in the Skipper Classic tonight, playing Mandeville at 8 o’clock.