Walker Valley's Kolten Gibson (3) drives past Hixson's Maurice Carter (5) during their game Wednesday in the Cleveland Holiday tournament at Raider Arena. Kolten scored 13 points in the Mustangs' 70-40 rout of the Wildcats.
photo by Dennis Norwood
CLEVELAND, Tenn. – To the average fan, Cleveland’s 30-point victory over Sequoyah in the Cleveland Holiday tournament might be misleading unless you were actually inside Raider Arena on Wednesday night.
The Blue Raiders (8-2) had a five-point lead over the stubborn Chiefs going into the fourth quarter.
Trashing an ineffective full-court pressure defense and choosing rather to defend Sequoyah in a half-court setting, Cleveland found a solid offensive rhythm and slammed the Chiefs with a 24-point closing quarter that resulted in a 75-58 victory to close the first day’s action.
In other boys’ games, host Cleveland knocked off Sequoyah, 75-58, the Jones Fightin’ Tigers out of Orlando, Florida, defeated Siegel, 55-45, and defending champion Clarksville Northeast rolled past Unicoi County, 69-51.
In girls’ contests, Signal Mountain defeated Unicoi County, 53-49, Walker Valley whipped Watertown, 63-25, CAK opened the day’s eight-game card with a 58-53 overtime victory over Hampton and Cleveland raced past Sequoyah, 63-21.
(See Thursday’s schedule below.)
“There’s a fine line between pressing to get something out of it and pressing to make things difficult for the other team to score,” Cleveland coach Jason McCowan said.
“We were doing neither of those things.”
So, after several nudges from assistant coach Keith Elliott to dump the pressure defense and go with an aggressive half-court alignment, the Blue Raiders were able to block some shots, cause some turnovers and frustrate the Chiefs at the same time.
It didn’t hurt Cleveland’s chances that Dionte Ware was pumping in a game-high 26 points and serving as a thorn in the opposing team’s side throughout the contest. Ware scored nine points in the first and fourth quarters and had 15 in the second half.
“The other guys were looking for me,” Ware said. “We really stepped up in the fourth quarter and were getting steals and open shots.”
Alex “Paco” Patterson opened the Cleveland scoring with two straight 3-pointers, Isaiah Johnson hit another 3 to cap an 11-0 run and the Blue Raiders had a 21-12 lead after one period.
“Out of the gate Paco hit those two 3s and we all wanted to shoot 3s,” McCowan said. “We backed off the pressure later in the game and made all twos in the fourth quarter.”
Cleveland made nine field goals in the final eight minutes, all mid-range or closer attempts, and added six free throws to turn a tight game into a 17-point victory.
After Mullek Bradford drove the lane for a layup to give Cleveland a 53-46 edge with just under seven minutes to play, Ware scored nine straight points that included a three-point play while Sequoyah managed just four the Blue Raiders pushed their lead to 62-51.
Cleveland eventually extended the run to 17-5 and was up 68-51 with 2:17 remaining.
“Dionte came out against Soddy-Daisy and could have hit from the parking lot,” McCowan said of Ware’s 30-point effort against the Trojans. “He takes good shots. I didn’t realize he had 26 tonight, but he is a matchup problem for people. He’s a talented kid, one of the best mid-range shooters I’ve coached.”
Joe Grant’s third 3 of the third period pulled the Chiefs to within 43-42 and teammate John Douglass Wiggins’ layup gave the visitors a 44-43. That lead lasted 49 seconds until Ware made two free throws and Cleveland went into the final period with a 51-46 cushion.
Johnson finished with 11 points for Cleveland.
Wiggins paced Sequoyah (3-5) with 16 points – a combined 12 in the second and third quarters. Grant added 11, nine coming on his 3-point spree in the third.
Walker Valley boys 70, Hixson 40: Despite early season struggles, Hixson basketball coach Lawanza Crutcher is still smiling and hasn’t lost his sense of humor.
“I guess we had too much Christmas turkey,” Crutcher said minutes after Walker Valley thumped his Wildcats by 30 points.
The Mustangs roared out to a 25-8 first-quarter lead and the snowball continued to gain momentum the rest of the way.
Later in a postgame interview, Crutcher was asked for his team’s record.
“We’re oh-and-10,” Crutcher said. “I’m not really counting. I’m just trying to show up every night.”
The Mustangs certainly didn’t play like a 2-7 team coming into the tournament and needed less than a quarter to take the suspense out of the game against Hixson.
Dustin Bunton scored nine points and Kolten Gibson added eight as the Mustangs built a 17-point first-quarter advantage. Gibson finished with 13 points and Bunton tallied 11.
Gibson and Brock Gibson each drained three 3-pointers as the Mustangs attacked inside and outside.
“Hixson is struggling, but they played hard and didn’t quit,” Mustangs coach Bob Williams said. “Our quick start was because our pressure was really good at the beginning and got us going.”
The Mustangs were without their starting point guard (Jordan Munck) was sick and remained at home and sophomore Noah Duprey is still sidelined after suffering a broken ankle against Tyner prior to the holiday break.
“Other guys have responded for us,” Williams said. “Nate Cooper stepped up playing point guard and other guys have too in Duprey’s absence. Noah is one of our better offensive weapons.”
In one stretch early in the second quarter, the Mustangs scored seven field goals and six were layups that ended fastbreaks off Hixson turnovers or missed shots. When that spree ended, the Mustangs enjoyed a 39-11 advantage. The lead was 57-21 after three quarters of play.
“Walker Valley played together as a team and they showed us anything we hadn’t seen before,” Crutcher said. “We just didn’t answer the bell and the set the tone right from the beginning.”
The Wildcats didn’t find a shooting touch until the fourth period when they scored 19 points, almost half their entire offensive production. Lukas Alameda made three 3-pointers in the final eight minutes and finished with 11 points. Terry Moorer scored seven of his team-high 13 points in the fourth period.
Yet, the Wildcats still lost by 30 points.
“This is the first time this group has played in a gym where there has been a depth perception problem,” Crutcher said. “We’re just trying to get better before the second part of our schedule starts. There’s a lot of season left. We’re going to grind every day until we get it right.”
Cleveland girls 63, Sequoyah 21: The Lady Blue Raiders took all the suspense out of the final girls’ game of the day in just one quarter, grabbing a 16-6 lead against the Lady Chiefs. Cleveland (7-6) was in complete control at the half, 33-13.
Brenna Droke scored 10 of her 14 points in the first half. Braylee Franklin had 12 points, 11 of which came in the second half. Kara Williams closed with 10 points.
Mallorie Harrell scored seven points for the Lady Chiefs (2-7), all in the first half.
Signal Mountain girls, 53, Unicoi County 49: A Wednesday morning text got Michael Lane’s attention. The text was from Signal coach Kendra Bell. She was sick. Lane, an assistant, would have to take over the reins in the Lady Eagles’ game against Unicoi County.
“I texted her back: ‘I hope I can fill your shoes,’ ” Lane said after Signal came from behind to win its opening game in the tournament.
“I was prepared schematically for what we like to do,” Lane said. “We tried to function the same way, push the ball, but we were a little too passive with our zone defense and fell behind early. I decided to go with our ‘forty,’ defense, that’s a full-court man-to-man, and we got into a rhythm.”
The Lady Eagles (7-8) took a 30-29 lead in the third quarter and extended the margin to 39-30 when Jolie McGann converted a three-point play and Kendall Davis knocked down a field goal. Unicoi County (6-5) scored the final six points in the quarter.
Signal led 44-41 and a 6-0 run stretched the margin to 50-41 with 1:29 remaining. Unicoi County pulled to within 51-49 on a short bank shot by Halie Padgett with 2.7 seconds left. Padgett finished with a game-high 30 points.
Two free throws by Signal’s Jaylah Hardy provided the final four-point spread.
McGann paced the Lady Eagles with 17 points, Olivia Koontz scored 14 and Hardy had 12.
Clarksville Northeast boys 69, Unicoi County 51: Northeast scored the game’s first 14 points and led wire-to-wire to post its 11th win against two losses.
The Eagles got a 20-point performance from 6-foot-5 Alec Kegler, who scored 13 points in the third period that led to a 56-36 advantage going into the fourth quarter. Kegler made three of the Eagles’ six 3-pointers.
Jaleel Fletcher finished with 13 points and Nico Gongolaz added 10, including three 3s.
Unicoi County’s Trevor Hensley scored a game-high 25 points with 12 coming on four 3s. He scored 10 points in the third period and went 7 for 8 from the free-throw line. Brock Thompson tossed in 11 points and knocked down three 3s.
Brock Thompson scored 11 points for the Blue Devils, who fell to 8-5 on the season.
Northeast got back on the winning track following an 84-69 loss to Marshall County in the Christmas Classic at Kenwood. That setback snapped the Eagles’ nine-game winning streak.
Northeast’s only other loss was a 72-59 decision against Ensworth.
Walker Valley girls 63, Watertown 25: This one was a mismatch from the opening tip. The Lady Mustangs raced to a 31-14 halftime lead and outscored Watertown 32-11 in the second half.
Lauren Lay paced Walker Valley with a game-high 17 points, including seven in the second period.
The tournaments’ primary sponsor is Under Armour.
Wednesday Boxscores
Girls Game
Signal Mountain 10 10 19 14 – 53
Unicoi County 15 13 8 13 – 49
Signal Mountain (53) – Davis 4, Jaylah Hardy 12, Sitton, Jolie McGinn 17, Witherspoon 6, Hansen, Olivia Koontz 14.
Unicoi County (49) – Henderson 1, Powers 3, Halie Padgett 30, King 2, Bailey 9, Vance 4, Griffith.
3-Point Goals – Signal Mountain 5 (Hardy 2, Witherspoon 2, McGann 1), Unicoi County 3 (Padgett 2, Powers 1).
Boys Game
Clarksville Northeast 18 14 24 13 – 69
Unicoi County 10 11 16 14 – 51
Clarksville Northeast (69) – Antoine, Nico Gongolaz 10, Cross 8, Robinson 4, Kellman, Jaleel Fletcher 13, McCray 2, Vereen 4, Miller 2, Douglass, Daugherty 6, Alec Kegler 20.
Unicoi County (51) – Thelan 2, Brock Thompson 11, Casey 2, Lingerfelt 6, Strother, Trevor Hensley 25, Lynch 1, O’Dell 4.
3-Point Goals – Clarksville Northeast 6 (Gongolaz 3, Fletcher 3), Unicoi County 9 (Hensley 4, Thompson 3, Lingerfelt 2).
Girls Game
Watertown 11 3 7 4 – 25
Walker Valley 16 15 17 15 – 63
Watertown (25) – Luttrell, Dickens 6, Edwards 2, George 2, Hight 1, Justice 2, Allison 7, Maklany, Reeder, Woodson 5.
Walker Valley (63) – Nipper 3, Davis 7, Clark 5, Frost 4, Kile 4, Roberts 3, Anderson 4, Lauren Lay 17, Baker 7, Fowler, Gibson 5, Harris 4.
3-Point Goals – Watertown 3 (Dickens 2, Allison 1), Walker Valley 6 (Lay 2, Clark 1, Baker 1, Gibson 1, Harris 1).
Boys Game
Hixson 8 3 10 19 – 40
Walker Valley 25 14 18 13 – 70
Hixson (40) – Lukas Alameda 11, Long 3, Smith 1, Crowe 3, Terry Moorer 13, Snow 9, Carter, Davis.
Walker Valley (70) – Westfield 3, Kolten Gibson 13, Braden Davis 11, Wallace 2, Cooper 8, Belou, Beene 2, Campbell 9, Dustin Bunton 11, Smith, Gibson 9.
3-Point Goals – Hixson 9 (Alameda 3, Snow 3, Long 1, Crowe 1, Moorer 1), Walker Valley 8 (K. Gibson 3, B. Gibson 3, Campell 1, Bunton 1).
Girls Game
Sequoyah 6 7 4 4 – 21
Cleveland 16 17 18 12 – 63
Sequoyah (21) – Belcher 4, Brackett, Miner 2, Wiggens 2, Harrell 7, Massengale, Carroll, Amburn, Grubb 4, Borden 2.
Cleveland (63) – Reed, Goodman, Person 2, Rominger 2, Dasher 6, Braylee Franklin 12, Marshall, Rouse, Langford 2, Kara Williams 10, Flowers 3, Callahan 6, Brenna Droke 14, Anderson 4, Alvarado 2.
3-Point Goals – Sequoyah none, Cleveland 7 (Dasher 2, Williams 2, Callahan 2, Franklin 1).
Boys Game
Sequoyah 12 17 17 12 – 58
Cleveland 21 15 15 24 – 75
Sequoyah (58) – Matthew Jump 13, Harrill, Strickland, Millsaps, McKee 2, Self 8, Joe Grant 11, Benson 2, Kile 6, John Douglas Wiggins 16
Cleveland (75) – Wykle 7, Isaiah Johnson 11, Bradford 8, Wood 9, Hurst, Dionte Ware 26, Patterson 6, Howard, Black 8.
3-Point Goals – Sequoyah 4 (Grant 3, Jump 1), Cleveland 4 (Patterson 2, Wykle 1, Johnson 1).
Thursday’s Schedule
10 a.m. – Hampton vs. Watertown, girls
11:30 a.m. – Siegel vs. Hixson, boys
1 p.m. – Sequoyah vs. Unicoi County, girls
2:30 p.m. – Sequoyah vs. Unicoi County, boys
Semifinal Games
4 p.m. – CAK vs. Walker Valley, girls
5:30 p.m. – Jones (Florida) vs. Walker Valley, boys
7 p.m. – Signal Mountain vs. Cleveland, girls
8:30 – Clarksville Northeast vs. Cleveland, boys
(Contact Larry Fleming at larryfleming44@gmail.com and on Twitter @larryfleming44)
Terry Moorer of Hixson prepares to take a jump shot against Walker Valley on Wednesday in Cleveland. Moorer scored nine of his team-high 13 points in the second half, but it wasn't enough to keep the Mustangs from posting a 70-40 victory.
photo by Dennis Norwood