'Canes Roll Past Stone Memorial 62-38 In Region 3-3A Action

Cleveland, Walker Valley Also Win Quarterfinal Games

  • Saturday, February 25, 2017
  • Larry Fleming

East Hamilton was able to shake off a devastating 30-point loss to Cleveland in the District 5-3A championship game earlier in the week and Stone Memorial was victimized by the Hurricanes’ big bounce-back.

East Hamilton held the visitors scoreless in the first quarter and went on to shellack the Panthers 62-38 in a history-making victory on its home court Saturday night.

“I went home after the Cleveland game and talked to myself for about two hours,” Hurricanes forward DaVae Hughley said. “Then I forgot about that game.”

Hughley made Stone Memorial pay a big price for his revenge effort – the heart of East Hamilton’s inside game notched a double-double with 11 points and 18 rebounds.

“That’s the best I’ve played in the last several games,” he said. “I want to keep working and play that way the next time.”

Appearing in their first region tournament and posting their first victory past a district tourney, the Hurricanes easily advanced to the Region 3-3A semifinals at Cleveland High School.

East Hamilton, which had a 13-0 lead after one period, will face White County, the District 6-3A champion, Tuesday at 7:45 p.m. White County eliminated Bradley Central, 67-54.

Elsewhere, Cleveland, the 5-3A champion, whipped Warren County 81-62 in another quarterfinal game behind a strong double-double – 26 points and 14 rebounds – by Dionte Ware.

The Blue Raiders will take on district rival Walker Valley in the first game of Tuesday’s double-header at 6 p.m. in Raider Arena. The Mustangs walloped Cookeville 73-57 to set up the season’s fourth game with Cleveland, which won the previous three by six, eight and 10 points.

“I didn’t think we played with as much energy I wanted,” Cleveland coach Jason McCowan said. “We’ll be at home again Tuesday and hopefully we can fix that. We need to play with a chip on our shoulders; we have to take advantage of playing at home.”

Vandrele Wilson led the ‘Canes with 14 points and Sam Randolph added 10 points.

Wilson was a key cog when East Hamilton turned up the aggressive meter following the opening tip. He scored seven points in the first half, seven more in the third quarter and drained two 3s in the game.

“I played pretty well and that’s because my teammates got me going by getting the ball to me,” Wilson said. “No way I wasn’t going to play more aggressive. It’s playoff time and you either win or go home.”

Hughley and Wilson each scored four points in the Hurricanes’ strong first quarter when they forced six turnovers.

How did senior Noah Fager assess the way East Hamilton played defense?

“Normal,” he said. “This is how we should play in every single game. That’s exactly what we wanted to do. We saw they couldn’t handle our pressure and I felt like when they didn’t score in the first quarter it seemed like they were almost out of energy.”

Christian Velker hit a 3 from the left wing for the Panthers’ first points early in the second period.

The Hurricanes scored the next nine points by four different players and expanded the lead to 22-3. Despite not scoring again before halftime East Hamilton still had a 22-8 advantage at the break.

“We spent a lot of time with the kids and stressed they had to be focused,” East Hamilton coach Rodney English said. “The coaches did a good job reminding them a lot of teams are not playing right now, but we are. They could go with that or wallow in the fact we got dismantled by Cleveland (77-47 on Tuesday). The kids chose to come with me and we started working on Stone Memorial.”

The Hurricanes’ scoring drought lasted for 4 minutes and 15 seconds and was snapped by Hughley’s free throw. That started a 9-0 run and Justin Dozier capped it with back-to-back layups off Panther turnovers.

Wilson’s 3-pointer gave the ‘Canes a 36-16 lead and Hughley hit a lane jumper 23 seconds later. In the final 1:03 of the third quarter East Hamilton scored eight points – Wilson hit a floater and layup, Fager dropped in a layup and Randolph added a driving scoop at the buzzer.

The Hurricanes were home free at 46-18.

“This was a big win for us,” Dozier said. “We had good crowd support and we’re looking forward to the next game. We just want to keep on winning.”’

The Panthers (14-16) scored 20 points in the final period, but a lot of East Hamilton’s defensive pressure was no as intense with reserve on the court.

“We saw on tape that Stone doesn’t like to play like us with the fast pace,” English said. “I figured why not go down swinging by doing what we do best and that’s speeding you up, pressuring you and turning you over. We kept throwing bodies at them and weren’t worried about taking jump shots. We wanted transition layups.”

Tristan Norman paced the Panthers with 18 points, 15 coming in the second half. Brett Newcome finished with 11 points.

Cleveland 81, Warren County 62: Dionte Ware’s big performance overshadowed another strong effort by junior KK Curry, who scored 20 points for the Blue Raiders (25-3).

Deontae Davis had 11 points, including three 3s, and Romeo Wykle finished with 10 points with two 3s in the third period when Cleveland pushed its lead to 64-47.

“We started off slow, but made a good run to take the lead at half,” McCowan said. “We had a good offensive third quarter for a comfortable lead. We rushed our shots in the first half, but did a good job getting the ball inside and turning turnovers into transition buckets in the second half.

“Along with Ware’s big night and KK playing well, Romeo Wykle did a lot of things offensively and defensively to get us going in the right direction.”

Isaiah Grayson paced Warren County with 22 points, including three 3-pointers. Sloan Seymour scored 10 points.

LINESCORES

Stone Memorial                    0 8 10 20 – 38

East Hamilton                       13 9 24 16 – 62

Stone Memorial (38) – Brett Newsome 11, Van Winkle, Tristan Norman 18, Sexton 4, Arnold, Wyatt, Barnwell, Street, Headrick 2, Velker 3

East Hamilton (62) – Vandrele Wilson 14, Williams 3, Montgomery 7, Pasley 5, DaVae Hughley 11, Sam Randolph 10, Fager 4, Dozier 8.

3-Point Goals – Stone Memorial 2 (Norman 1, Velker 1), East Hamilton 2 (Wilson 2).

Warren County                     18 10 19 14 – 62

Cleveland                              13 24 27 17 – 81

Warren County (62) – Golden 2, Isaiah Grayson 22, Sloan Seymour 10, Smith 5, Turner, Hobbs 5, Wilson, Newby 8, Black, Hodges, Espinoza 2, Brock, Calbert 8.

Cleveland (81) – Romeo Wykle 10, Berry 6, Bradford 3, KK Curry 20, Wood 2, Williams, Dionte Ware 26, Patterson 3, Deontae Davis 11, K. Ware, Cobb, Black.

3-Point Goals – Warren County 4 (Grayson 3, Hobbs 1), Cleveland 6 (Davis 3, Wykle 2, Patterson 1). 

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

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