Prep Teams Paint GPS Pink In Hoops For Hope

Pink was the color of the day at Saturday’s annual Hoops For Hope.

There were pink hair bows.

Pink socks.

Pink headbands.

Pink sweaters.

Pink uniforms (Red Bank), sweatshirts, T-shirts, hair ribbons and pink plastic donation buckets.

Proceeds from the four games played at Girls Preparatory School go to the Mary Ellen Locher Foundation, with a portion going toward college scholarships.

On the court, six girls’ teams and two boys played four basketball games, with the proceeds going toward breast awareness and the Mary Ellen Locher Foundation.

“These players are healthy and this is our way of trying to help women who are suffering,” GPS coach Jennifer Williams said.

In the girls games, host GPS defeated Notre Dame, 59-42, once-beaten Boyd-Buchanan whipped Red Bank, which dressed only five players, 54-40, and Signal Mountain routed Tyner, 69-38, behind a 34-point effort by Aryn Sanders.

The Tyner boys, coming off a big 74-68 win over rival Howard on Friday night, cruised past the Signal Mountain Eagles, 63-51, as Darron Mastin and Kevin Cameron combined for 39 points.

The Bruisers (6-3) hit the offensive boards early for three put-backs that helped them built a 15-5 first-quarter lead. Notre Dame (7-1) cut GPS’ lead to 24-19 on Adia Colvin’s 3 – she had six in the game – from the right wing, but the Bruisers’ Kara Ware hit a free throw, Akia Harris dropped in a floater and Reagan Williams made a stop-and-pop jumper to stretch the lead to 29-19.

“We haven’t been rebounding that well,” Williams said, “so, that’s a sign of improvement.”

However, Allison Hoffer’s free throw and Colvin’s 3 with 2.0 seconds on the clock, pulled the Lady Irish to within 29-23 at halftime.

With Harris and Ware each scoring six points, GPS extended the margin to 47-32 after three quarters. An Annie Ripper 3 brought Notre Dame within 53-42, but they Lady Irish failed to score over the final 4:33 and GPS put up six points in the last 1:44 for the final margin.

“We had a tough game with Ensworth (Friday) and considering that I was pleased with the way we played today,” Williams said. “We’re really looking to make steady progress because we’re playing for February.”

Harris led GPS with 17 points and Ware finished with 13.

“I sleep well at night because I’ve got her at point guard,” Williams said. “She’s a good shooter, good at the drive-and-dump and if we’ve got the lead, it’s hard to beat us at the end because she’s so reliable.”

Colvin topped Notre Dame’s scoring with 20 points. Colvin’s first 18 points over three quarters came on 3-pointers. Ripper added 12 points.

Coach Gerald Harris’ Tyner Rams benefited from a strong combined effort from Maston and Cameron over the weekend.

On Friday, they each scored 18 points in the win over Howard – Kenny Bulloch led the way with 19 points – and about 15 hours later the high-octane duo went off again. Cameron scored a game-high 20 points against the Eagles, 14 coming in the first half. Maston came up big in the second half with 13 points and got 11 in the fourth period.

Maston’s first-half scoring was a pair of 3s.

“Just think what we would have if we had (Devontae) Jones, our point guard from last year,” Harris said. “Daaron and Kevin really complement one another. Daaron has improved his attacking the basket and while Kevin is still hard to handle inside, he’s improved his outside shot. He hit a 3 today, he’s got a lot more confidence in that floater and it gives him another dimension. He didn’t trust it last year.”

Cameron, who can demoralize opposing teams with his aggressiveness around the basket, both rebounding and scoring, but the running floater has become another devastating weapon. Cameron arcs it twice as high as any other player in town and it won’t be blocked very often.

KeMarcus Young’s two buckets in the last 1:43 of the second quarter, helped the Rams (6-3) push their lead to 36-23.

The Eagles (2-5) scored the first seven points in the third period – Jack Teeter’s 3 and scoop and TeDarius Hodge’s layup – and climbed back in the game at 36-30.

Tyner had an answer. Three to be exact.

Young hit two field goals, the second coming with 53.9 seconds left in the third quarter, Maston nailed a bank shot and then Cameron dropped in another floater to start the fourth period to give the Rams a 44-30 advantage.

The Eagles came back with eight straight points and trailed 44-38, but Tyner pulled away down the stretch for the win.

“(Maston and Cameron) are good players,” Eagles coach Steve Redman said, “and we had trouble stopping them. But after (Friday’s) horrible game (a 52-42 loss to Chattanooga Christian) I wanted these guys to play with better effort, play hard and get better. They did that.”

Teeter paced Signal Mountain with 17 points and Ryan McCaffrey added 16.

Boyd-Buchanan’s Lady Bucs (8-1) righted themselves after a sub-par third quarter that saw a 10-point halftime lead trimmed to 35-29 heading into the fourth period.

Post Maddie Wright powered the Lady Bucs with a game-high 23 points, 20 coming in the first half. She left the game with 7:38 left in the game with a knee injury (not believed to be serious), but the short-handed Lady Lions (2-8) couldn’t muster a rally.

“We had a tough game against Arts and Sciences on Friday night and we struggled early in this game,” Boyd-Buchanan coach Tracey Walker said. “I think this could be good for us. We had some kids step up for us.”

Red Bank was without three players – two were taking the ACT and another had the flu.

Plus, Layla Babb sustained a bloody nose and the game was stopped a few minutes until she could be treated by a trainer.

“I thought we might have to finish with four players,” Lady Lions coach Bailey Lyness said. “We’ve had six players the last two games, but today we had to go with five.”

Haley Claiborne scored 14 points – eight in the first period and seven in the fourth – to lead the Lady Lions. Ashley Brown scored nine of her 11 points in the third quarter.

The day’s best individual offensive performance was turned in by Sanders in the final game.

Sanders, who scored 24 points in the Lady Eagles’ 58-33 win over Chattanooga Christian on Friday, pumped in 14 first-quarter points against the Lady Rams, including two 3s. She added eight points in the second and fourth quarters and had four in the third.

Sanders outscored the entire Tyner team in the first and third periods.

Signal Mountain’s Brooke Whitmire put up 11 of her 20 points in the second period.

Sanders and Whitmire combined for 17 field goals, 11-of-14 free throws and three 3s.

Porchia Turner scored 11 points for the Lady Rams.

Scoring Summaries

Girls Games

Notre Dame                                       5 18 9 10 – 42

Girls Preparatory School              15 14 18 12 – 59

Notre Dame (42) – Annie Ripper 12, Williams, Rabuano 3, Hoffer 1, McMeen, Adia Colvin 20, Siler 4, Beaman 2.

Girls Preparatory School (59) – Akia Harris 17, Kara Ware 13, Williams 8, Hudson 8, Hubbard 7, Dunigan 4, Newbold 2, West.

3-Point Goals – Notre Dame 9 (Colvin 6, Ripper 2, Rabuano 1), Girls Preparatory School 2 (Harris 2).

Tyner                                                12 11 10 5 – 38

Signal Mountain                              18 19 14 18 -- 69

Tyner (38) – Bedford 2, Packs 5, Conyers, Melton 5, Maffett 3, Christopher, McAfee, Smith 4, Armstrong 6, Kaysha Rodgers 11, Turner 2.

Signal Mountain (69) – Patterson, Brooke Whitmire 20, Aryn Sanders 34, Bledsoe 3, Gravitt, Boals 2, Rachel 2, McGowan 4, Witherspoon 4.

3-Point Goals – Tyner 2 (Melton, Maffett), Signal Mountain 3 (Sanders 2, Whitmire 1).

Red Bank                                             11 7 11 11 – 40

Boyd-Buchanan                                  16 12 7 19 – 54

Red Bank (40) – Ashley Brown 11, Babb 4, D. Brown 4, A. Brown Haley Claiborne 14, Evers 6.

Boyd-Buchanan (54) – Highfield 6, Huland 9, Parker 6, Balthrop 4, Sewell 6, High, M. Balthrop, Maddie Wright 23.                                              

3-Point Goals – Red Bank 5 (Claiborne 3, A. Brown 1, H. Claiborne 1), Boyd-Buchanan none.

Boys Game

Tyner                                                18 18 6 21 – 63

Signal Mountain                              12 11 7 21 – 51

Tyner (63) – Daaron Maston 19, Kevin Cameron 20, Boyd 2, Deloach 3, Russell, Halfacre, Elston 2, Bulloch 4, Young 8, Putman 5.

Signal Mountain (51) – Cate, McCullum, K. McCaffrey, Heinchen, Ryan McCaffrey 16, Palmer 8, Murphy, Jack Teeter 17, Hodge 8, Wicker.

3-Point Goals – Tyner 4 (Maston 2, Cameron 1, Bulloch 1), Signal Mountain 5 (Teeter 3, Palmer 2).

(E-mail Larry Fleming at larryfleming44@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @larryfleming44)