Hamilton Heights, Silverdale Double Jamboree Winners

Baylor Girls Also Impressive In Action At GPS Monday Night

  • Monday, November 10, 2014
  • John Hunt

Here we are at the second week of November and one thing is for sure:  it's gotta be basketball season.

There used to be an annual high school hoops jamboree at Maclellan Gym, but it was discontinued several years ago.  GPS coach Jennifer Williams remembers those days when she was called "Curley" and made things happen on the courts at Red Bank.

It was her idea to bring back this season-opening tradtion, so GPS was the host school for Monday's opening round.

There were six quarters of action and most were quite entertaining.  But for an opportunity for teams to play someone other than themselves, it gave coaches a chance to see how their kids might react under game situations.

Silverdale and Hamilton Heights were the only double winners while the Signal Mountain and Baylor girls were also victorious.

Signal Mountain's girls opened the action with a 20-8 win over East Ridge while Silverdale's girls nipped Notre Dame by an 11-10 final in the closest contest.  The Silverdale boys looked good in a 22-16 win over Notre Dame before Baylor's girls beat Brainerd, 26-8.

The Lady Hawks from Hamilton Heights then had the most one-sided quarter with a 30-8 win over Signal Mountain while the Hamilton Heights boys posted a 14-7 win over the Signal Mountain boys.

There will be five more quarters on Tuesday with GPS and Howard tangling at 6.  The Hixson-Boyd-Buchanan girls follow at 6:30 with the boys at 7.  Then in the final two stanzas of the evening, GPS challenges Tyner at 7:30 with McCallie scheduled to tackle the Tyner boys at 8.

SIGNAL MOUNTAIN GIRLS 20, EAST RIDGE 8: Jayla Stone gave the Lady Pioneers a 2-0 lead with a layup in the first minute and she made another about two and a half minutes later for a 4-3 East Ridge lead, but Ary Sanders converted a three-point play the old fashioned way at the 4:56 mark to give the Lady Eagles a 6-4 lead.

Rabbit Lawrence scored at the 3:43 mark to knot the score at 6-6, but the Lady Eagles scored 14 of the final 16 points to win with ease.

Sanders scored a dozen to lead the Lady Eagles while Brooke Whitmire had eight, including a pair of 3s toward the end.  Stone scored six of the Lady Pioneers eight points.

SILVERDALE GIRLS 11, NOTRE DAME 10: This was the closest quarter of the evening, but two free throws by Emily Harkleroad with 48.5 seconds remaining proved to be the difference as the Lady Seahawks prevailed by a point.

It was a free-throw contest for the first five minutes as the two teams combined to hit three of seven from the charity stripe.  Allison Hoffer scored inside at the 3:07 mark to give the Lady Irish a 3-2 lead while back-to-back 3s by Adia Colvin extended Notre Dame's lead to 9-4.

Megan Lewis cut that lead to two with a 3 at the 1:35 mark and she added a layup 45 seconds later to get her team within one, setting up Harkleroad's winning tosses two seconds later.

Lewis scored five points to lead Silverdale while Colvin's seven points topped Notre Dame.

SILVERDALE BOYS 22, NOTRE DAME 16: Silverdale bolted to a big lead early with Nathan Keylon's 3 making it 10-2 at the midway point.

Notre Dame got to within three at 10-7 following a 3 from the baseline from Tyler Byrd while another 3 by C.J. Greer cut the Seahawk lead to 20-16 with 12 seconds remaining, but Jordan Delashmitt sank two free throws at the end for the final six-point margin.

Delashmitt had eight points to pace the winners while Keylon finished with six and Michael Hawkins with five.  Byrd had nine points to lead Notre Dame.

BAYLOR GIRLS 26, BRAINERD 8: The Baylor girls have been picked as one of the best teams in the area as they have a lot of talented, experienced players back.

They looked pretty good against a Brainerd team that will also be pretty good, but the Lady Red Raiders had the upper hand in this one.

Abby Huber's baseline jumper at the 4:57 mark ended a 9-0 Baylor run that had erased a 1-0 lead by Brainerd in the opening seconds. 

Jamee Ward scored five of her seven points to get the Lady Panthers within 9-6, but a 15-0 run by Baylor in the next four minutes left no doubt about who would win this contest.

"I thought we did some good things out there tonight, but we still have a long way to go," said Baylor coach John Gibson.

"For the most part, I'm pleased with what I saw, but their goals and my expectations aren't the same at this point.  I'm sure I'll have something to yell about tomorrow at practice," he concluded with a smile.

Kayleigh Clemons, who canned a 3 to start Baylor's scoring, had seven points to lead her team while Mya Long and Jutorya Willis added six apiece for the winners.

Ward had seven points for Brainerd while Ebony Calloway had the other point.

HAMILTON HEIGHTS GIRLS 30, SIGNAL MOUNTAIN 8: A lot has been written about how outstanding the Hamilton Heights boys are, but the girls aren't exactly bad as they had their way with an outmatched Signal Mountain squad.

The Lady Hawks scored the first 13 points before Kendra Bell called a timeout and the difference was 23-3 just past the halfway point. 

Lydia Bledsoe sank a pair of free throws at the 3:38 mark while Sanders added the last three points for the Lady Eagles, but this one was over with long before those shots fell.

Elizabeth Balogun was tops for the Lady Hawks with eight points, all coming inside where she completely dominated.  Jazmine Massengill followed with five points for the winners whie Maria Bandeeva came off the bench to score four.

Whitmire and Sanders both had three points for the Lady Eagles.

HAMILTON HEIGHTS BOYS 14, SIGNAL MOUNTAIN 7:  Coach Steven Redman was somewhat hesitant to even be in the jamboree, knowing that quite a few of his starters are still playing football.  His concern grew even more when he found out who his opponent would be.

But in a quarter when the Hawks' Ezekiel Balogun started things off with a fast-break slam, it wasn't as bad as most would have expected.

Two free throws from Michael Cate and Griffin Palmer gave Signal Mountain a 5-4 lead three minutes in and a drive down the lane by Seth Wicker knotted the score at 7-7 for the Eagles at the 2:52 mark, but Signal Mountain didn't score again as the Hawks slowly pulled away.

"That wasn't too bad," said Redman shortly after the last quarter ended.

"They just had a slight talent advantage on us, but we didn't appear to be scared.  We could have just fallen apart after that first dunk, but we didn't," he added.

Balogun added a free throw later and finished with three points to lead Hamilton Heights while five teammates all had at least one field goal, including Joan Duran, Abdulhakim Ado, Strahinja Micakovic, Milos Andelic and C.J. Massengill, the only Chattanoogan on the Hawks' roster.

Cate had three points to lead Signal Mountain while Palmer and Wicker had two apiece.

(Email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@Comcast.net)

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