Hurricanes Turn Back Fayette-Ware 63-53 In East-West Classic

Bradley Girls Whip Arlington 73-58 As Officials Call 51 Fouls

  • Saturday, December 9, 2017
  • Larry Fleming
 

CLEVELAND, Tenn. – The first time an East Hamilton basketball team squared off against a Memphis powerhouse in a big-time setting, the Hurricanes lost by 20 points.

It didn’t matter much that Memphis East went on to win the 2017 Class 3A state championship after hammering the Hurricanes, 76-56.

English didn’t like the taste left in his mouth, or his players, with such a one-sided loss.

What did matter is this: what were the Hurricanes going to do about being so completely dominated?

English and the Hurricanes have spent the months since that March mauling working harder, lifting more and trying to come up with a solution to the problem of getting over the Memphis hump.

Well, East Hamilton took a giant step in the right direction Saturday by beating Fayette-Ware, 63-53, in the feature game of the East-West Classic at Bradley Central High School.

“I’m pumped,” English said, emerging from the team locker room inside Jim Smiddy Arena. “This is big for us. We played three different styles of basketball today. We played fast-paced. We played half-court and we played ball control. We got better today.”

Cameron Montgomery sparked the Hurricanes (11-2) with a game-high 23 points on 9-of-12 shooting. Montgomery hit back-to-back 3-pointers to in a 10-3 run that wiped out a 43-41 deficit and produced a 51-46 lead going to the fourth quarter.

Andrew Williams was a strong force inside, scoring 16 points and grabbing nine rebounds. Justin Dozier added 10 points.

“We’ve all worked hard to prepare for this season,” Williams said. “I want to help us play inside out more and we did that today. This game shows that we can compete with the other side of the state, and it should show other teams that too.”

Jaylon Taylor paced Fayette-Ware (7-2) with 16 points.

Four other games rounded out the last day of the first East-West Classic.

Bradley Central’s unbeaten Bearettes pulled away with a 44-point second half and beat Arlington, 73-58, in a foul-plagued contest. It was, in all reality, a different kind of whistleblowing. Officials called 50-plus fouls.

In the finale, Bradley's boys knocked off Oakhaven easily, 73-58

The action started with Bolton’s boys defeating Oak Ridge, 62-54, and the Oak Ridge girls knocked off Houston, 60-55.

Back to the Hurricanes’ big-time performance.

The late third-quarter spurt gave East Hamilton a lead it never relinquished, although the Wildcats didn’t ease off their foot-to-the-pedal play until the final 20 seconds.

“Coach English wants me to be more aggressive on offense, but make the right plays,” Montgomery said. “I want to be an all-around player. I usually take the opponents’ best offensive player and when I’m on offense I’m going to take what they give me.”

Even when the Wildcats defended Montgomery, he found ways to score.

“Here’s the thing with Cam,” English said. “We don’t think his jump shot is as good as he thinks it is, so we want him driving to the rim and finishing strong even among the trees.

“It has been a roller coaster for him, but we’re going to ride him. I think he’s going to level out and be a solid player.”

The Hurricanes pushed their lead to 55-48 on Montgomery’s layup early in the final period. Arrington Maclin dropped a 12-foot jump shot, but Montgomery countered a minute later with a baseline floater.

After a Wildcat free throw, Williams scored on a layup for a 59-51 advantage.

“If Andrew stays within the system, he is so good,” English said. “He comes down in transition and hits a big shot. We’re bringing him along and you have to remember he’s a 15-year-old sophomore. We’ve going to give him more to do and he wants more.”

Dozier made two free throws. The Wildcats’ Quarterrius York connected on a right-wing 3, but DaVae Hughley’s layup with 33.2 seconds left capped the scoring.

“We played East Hamilton basketball tonight,” Williams said.

Bradley girls 73, Arlington 58: This one was ugly.

Athens Officials Associations referees called 51 fouls, 33 on Arlington and 18 on the Bearettes.

Thirty-nine fouls in the second half slowed the game to a crawl. The last boys’ game pitting Bradley Central and Oakhaven was more than an hour late starting.

“It came down to them deciding to either steal the ball or foul us,” Bearettes coach Jason Reuter said. “The probably were hoping to get us rattled. I’m not saying Arlington was playing dirty at all. We got 20-something points and they had to catch up.”

The Lady Tigers had five players foul out: Trenity Hill, Nya Stewart, Lanetta Williams, Karlee Bates and Sarah Grandberry.

Bradley Central (8-0) hit 27-of-45 free throws. Senior Rhyne Howard, who scored a season-high 28 points, went 11 of 12 from the stripe, and Arlington’s entire team was 14 for 19.

Howard played her most inspired game of the season because the game was getting so physical.

“Their players were very physical and their fans were complaining about everything,” she said. “More than anything it was the fans talking nonsense.

“We shot a lot of free throws, but if you keep fouling us we’re going to score more points.

Bradley freshman Jamaryn Blair was 5 for 11 at the stripe and finished with 19 points. Anna Walker scored 10 points, pulled down 11 rebounds and was 3 for 4 at the charity line.

At East Hamilton on Friday, Chattanooga officials called 218 fouls in six games – the single-game high was 41 – for an average of 36.3 per game.

On Saturday, the AOA refs called 202 fouls. In FIVE games. That’s equates to 40.4 fouls per game. They went from 50-plus in the Bearettes’ game to 34 in the Bears’ crushing 56-46 crushing of Oakhaven.

In addition to all the multiple player disqualifications, Arlington’s coach and a player were each slapped with technical fouls.

In between all the stoppages that resulted in a combined 64 free throws, the teams were allowed to play a little basketball.

With Howard’s biggest offensive output of the young season, the Kentucky signee passed Jane Brock (Richardson) and 2017 graduate Halle Hughes for 12th place on the Bearettes’ all-time career scoring list.

Howard has 1,885 points at Bradley Central while Hughes put up 1,857 and Brock 1,841.

The next target for the 6-foot-1 Miss Basketball runner-up in 2017, is Amy Geren with 1,983 in 11th place.

Throw in varsity playing time Howard as an eighth-grader at East Hamilton before transferring to Bradley Central, she has an overall total of 2,036 career points.

Bradley Central boys 66, Oakhaven 46: Coach Chuck Clark’s Bears steadily pushed the lead and Lameric Tucker was the sparkplug with 22 points. Saylor Clark added 14 points and Ashton Boyd finished with 10.

Oakhaven’s Christopher Williams led his team with 17 points and Van Parker finished with 12. Terrance Fifer grabbed 12 rebounds and Gevon House had 11 to help build a 45-34 edge over the Bears.

Bradley (3-4) blew the game open in the third quarter, outscoring the Hawks 21-8 and taking a commanding 51-29 lead into the fourth. That’s when Oakhaven was its most effective with a 29-point effort, but it was way too late to impact the game’s outcome.

The Hawks (1-5) did win the rebounding battle, 45-34, but sloppy ball-handling (31 turnovers) enabled the Bears to run up a 24-4 scoring margin in that category.

Bolton boys 62, Oak Ridge 54: Bolton got a strong double-double from Decorian Kelly in the day’s opening game. Kelly scored 20 points and grabbed 10 rebounds as the Wildcats went 2-0 in the classic.

Kelly pumped in 18 points Friday in Bolton’s 66-60 win against Bradley Central.

The Wildcats took a 52-39 lead into the final three minutes. Dylan Mead dropped a lane floater, pushing the margin to five points and Bolton’s next six points came on three free throws each by Cory Griggs and Mead, who scored five of Bolton’s last 10 points in the final 2 minutes and 16 seconds.

Bolton (7-1) made eight more free throws than Oak Ridge (5-3), but the Wildcats from East Tennessee stayed close by hitting 17-of-25 free throws. Bolton was 10 of 16 from the stripe.

Marcus Smith led Oak Ridge with 18 points, Levert Smith had 14 and Joe Kesterson added 11, including three of the team’s five 3-pointers.

Bolton out-rebounded Oak Ridge 43-29 and forced 24 turnovers.

Oak Ridge girls 60, Houston 55: Shaky off a 10-point halftime deficit, Oak Ridge (4-3) put up 36 second-half points and escaped with a five-point victory behind a scintillating 31-point performance by Jada Guinn.

Guinn went 10 for 15 from the field and was 11-for-13 at the free-throw line.  She scored 26 points in the second half. When Houston (5-3), which went lost all three games in the classic, tried to catch up in the final minutes, Guinn scored five of Oak Ridge’s final six points to stay ahead.

Mykia Dowdell scored 10 points for Oak Ridge.

Jayla Hemingway and Madison Griggs each scored 16 points for the Lady Mustangs. Destinee Wells added 15 points, with five assists, five steals and five turnovers.

Chick-fil-A is the primary sponsor of the East-West Classic.

Boxscores

Boys Game

East Hamilton                       17 16 18 12 – 63

Fayette-Ware                         9 23 13 8 – 53

East Hamilton (63) – Wilso, Andrew Williams 16, Hughley 7, Justin Dozier 10, Schramm 5, Cameron Montgomery, Paisley, S. Randolph 2, D. Randolph, Johnson.

Fayette-Ware (53) – Freeman 4, A. Maclin 9, Jaylon Taylor 16, Waddel 2, Watkins 7, Yates 6, Ricks 1, Hayes, Jones, York 8.

3-Point Goals – East Hamilton 2 (Montgomery 2), Fayette-Ware 2 (York 2).

Girls Game

Arlington                               14 7 8 29 – 58

Bradley Central                   19 10 22 22 – 73

Arlington (58) – Hill 2, Nya Stewart 12, Caitlyn Wilson 13, Williams 5, Bates 2, Lattimore 7, Nichols, Bonds, Ca. Taylor 7, Shanklin, Grandberry 7, Ch. Taylor 3.

3-Point Goals – Arlington  6 (Wilson 3, Ca. Taylor 1, Grandberry 1, Ch. Taylor 1), Bradley Central 10 (Blair 4, Howard 3, Hughes 2, Walker 1).

Boys Game

Oakhaven                              14 9 8 15 – 46

Bradley Central                   12 17 21 16 – 66

Oakhaven (46) – House 5, Van Parker 12, Howard 6, Christopher Williams 17, McLaurin, Jackons, Weatherall, Fifer 6.

Bradley Central (66) – Saylor Clark 14, Lameric Tucker 22, Ferguson 5, Cobb 4, Elrod 2, Ashton Boyd 10, Wesley, Creasman, Walker, Rothwell 9, Greene.

3-Point Goals – Oakhaven 7 (Parker 4, Williams 3), Bradley Central 2 (Tucker 1, Boyd 1).

Girls Game

Houston                                 20 16 8 11 – 55

Oak Ridge                             10 14 19 17 – 60

Houston (55) – Jayla Hemingway 16, Gary, Madison Griggs 16, Destinee Wells 15, Carter 2, Ken. Trice, Davis 4, Kel. Trice2, Barnes.

Oak Ridge (60) – Bates 2, Copeland 3, Jada Guinn 31, Golden 7, Mykia Dowdell 10, Mitchell-Steen 2, Dunbar 3, Dean, Eckles 2.

3-Point Goals – Houston 9 (Griggs 4, Wells 3, Davis 1, Hemingway 1), Oak Ridge 2 (Dowdell 1, Dunbar 1).

Boys Game

Bolton                                    15 8 20 19 – 62

Oak Ridge                             17 14 14 9 – 54

Bolton (62) – Griggs 7, Decorian Kelly 20, Wiley 9, Gloster 6, Littlejohn 6, Mead 5, Gaines 2, Ryan 3, Crockett, Taylor 4.

Oak Ridge (54) – Marcus Smith 18, Levert Smith 14, Joe Kesterson 11, Johnson, Angle 5, S. Smith 4, Martin, Stewart 2.

3-Point Goals – Bolton 4 (Kelly 2, Wiley 1, Ryan 1), Oak Ridge 5 (Kesterson 3, M. Smith 2).

(Contact Larry Fleming at larryfleming44@gmail.com and on Twitter at larryfleming44)

 

 

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