Eddie Salter had a successful run as the boys basketball coach at Chattanooga Christian earlier in his career, but resigned that position eight years ago to concentrate on his job as the head coach for the middle school football team.
The slender gentleman is back on the sideline this year and was all smiles following his team’s romp over an outmanned Lookout Valley squad Tuesday night in the first round of the CCS Thanksgiving Tournament at Chattanooga Christian Tuesday evening.
He had reason to be smiling after his boys totally dominated the Yellow Jackets en route to a 69-34 victory. That followed the CCS girls’ 47-27 win over Lookout Valley.
The Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe girls opened the action with a 57-47 win over Silverdale while the Silverdale boys defeated LFO by a 46-41 final.
The tournament resumes on Friday with Silverdale facing Lookout Valley in the first two games and LFO facing CCS in the final two.
CHATTANOOGA CHRISTIAN BOYS 69, LOOKOUT VALLEY 34: Amos Davenport canned a 3 from the wing in the opening minute and the Chargers never looked back.
“It’s good to be back,” Salter smiled after exiting the CCS dressing room following the game.
“We wanted to come out and play with intensity and we did at times, but we practice harder than we played tonight. We’re starting all over again and it’s all new to them, but they’ve responded well so far. We got a few turnovers which led to some easy baskets, but we just have to keep it going.
“I’m really excited to be back as the opportunity just came my way,” he added.
Lookout Valley coach Eric Ford certainly wasn’t happy with the outcome, but he’s planning to find out what his team is made of on Wednesday morning at 8:30 when they have their next practice.
“We just got whipped. They’re a lot bigger and more physical, but we have two starters out and we’re banged up for it to be so early in the season,” he began.
“We still have to want to do well and I’m not sure we did tonight. I guess we’ll see who wants to tomorrow morning. I felt like we ran our sets pretty well, but they killed us on the boards. It seemed like they got at least three shots for every possession,” he nodded.
Buckets from Darrion Robinson and Michael Evans kept the Yellow Jackets close at 5-4, but the Chargers scored seven straight points and finished the quarter on a 14-4 run for a 19-8 lead when the first stanza ended.
Back to back buckets from Greg Dixon and Robinson and a pair of free throws from Dixon kept Lookout Valley in striking distance at 20-14 with 6:31 left in the half before the Chargers went on another run of 14-5 for a comfortable 34-19 lead at the break.
It never got any closer.
A 14-2 run in the middle of the third stanza gave the hosts a 49-29 lead after three periods and it only got worse as the CCS subs kept the pedal on the medal by outscoring the Yellow Jackets 20-5 in the final eight minutes to win in a blowout.
Ben Moore and John Rhodes both scored 16 points to lead the winners while Davenport was also in double figures with 10. Romondo Ellison only scored seven points, but he was a monster on the boards as the scrappy 6-3 sophomore grabbed 18 rebounds as CCS had an unofficial 51-18 edge on the glass.
Dixon was the only Lookout Valley player in double figures as he finished with 13 points while Robinson was next with eight.
Greg Dixon, Chris Dixon and Robinson all had four rebounds for Lookout Valley while Moore had seven for CCS. Michael Hogue and Davenport both claimed five for the Chargers.
CCS GIRLS 47, LOOKOUT VALLEY 27: Addie Henry and Kate Dirkse scored 14 and 12 points, respectively, to lead the Lady Chargers while Madison Blevins was next with nine points.
Bailey Lee was the only Lookout Valley player in double figures as she finished with 10 points. Maddiey Millraney finished with six while Alex Spence added five.
LFO GIRLS 57, SILVERDALE 47: The Lady Warriors only had an 8-7 lead when the first quarter ended, but they blew things open with a 20-11 advantage in the second and that was basically the difference as both teams scored 29 points in the second half.
Macey Gregg had 21 points to lead LFO while Jazzmyn Elston followed with 10. Maia Payne finished with eight points while Gabby Ware and Sydni Eaves tossed in seven apiece.
Emily Harkleroad was the leader for the Lady Seahawks with 14 points while teammate Abby Woodard was next with 13. Rachel Sanders finished with nine.
SILVERDALE BOYS 46, LFO 41: The Warriors had a fourth-quarter surge where they outscored Sivlerdale by nine points, but a 23-15 halftime lead that had stretched to 37-23 after three stanzas was simply too much to overcome.
Christian Rogers scored 20 points to lead the Seahawks while Cade Hannah and Garet Gibson finished with six points each and Brannon Walls with five.
Noah Harris was the only LFO player in double figures as he finished with a dozen. Daniel Miles was next with nine while Ruddy Ware had six.
GIRLS SUMMARIES
LAKEVIEW-FORT OGLETHORPE 8 20 10 19 -- 57
SILVERDALE 7 11 9 20 -- 47
LFO (57) – Gregg 21, Ware 7, Payne 8, Kelley 4, Eaves 7, Jackson 1, Elston 10.
SILVERDALE (47) – White 2, Caldwell 4, Ray 5, Harkleroad 14, Woodard 13, Sanders 9.
3-POINT GOALS: LFO 4 (Gregg, Ware, Payne, Eaves); Silverdale 2 (Harkleroad, Ray).
LOOKOUT VALLEY 5 6 8 8 -- 27
CHATTANOOGA CHRISTIAN 13 9 15 10 -- 47
LOOKOUT VALLEY (27) – B. Crownover, Guthrie, Barber 4, C. Crownover 2, Rogers, Spence 5, Millraney 6, Lee 10.
CCS (47) – Hughes, Pruitt 5, Blevins 9, Henry 14, Davick 3, Fischer 2, Walker, Hendry, Dirkse 12, Fikkert, Rolleston, Jipping 2.
3-POINT GOALS: Lookout Valley 4 (Barber, Spence, Millraney 2); CCS 5 (Pruitt, Blevins 2, Henry 2).
BOYS SUMMARIES
LAKEVIEW-FORT OGLETHORPE 7 8 8 18 -- 41
SILVERDALE 8 15 14 9 -- 46
LFO (41) – Miles 9, Gilbert 2, Ware 6, Herrod, Green 4, Harris 12, Bennett 4, McCracken 2, Anderson 2.
SILVERDALE (46) – Johnson 3, Walls 5, Mossburg, Hannah 6, Gibson 6, Sanders 4, Rogers 20, Walker 2.
3-POINT GOALS: LFO 4 (Miles, Green, Harris 2); Silverdale none.
LOOKOUT VALLEY 8 11 10 5 -- 34
CHATTANOOGA CHRISTIAN 19 15 15 20 -- 69
LOOKOUT VALLEY (34) – Robinson 8, G. Dixon 13, C. Dixon, Howard 2, Ray, Williams 1, Patel, Sexton 2, Evans 2, Daniel 6.
CHATTANOOGA CHRISTIAN (69) – Covington, Moore 16, Davenport 10, Rowell 1, R. Rhodes, J. Rhodes 16, Loyal 3, Hogue 4, Stimart 6, Ellison 7, Webb 6, Wharton.
3-POINT GOALS: Lookout Valley 1 (G. Dixon); CCS 2 (Davenport, Loyal).
(Email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)