It’s been a long basketball season for the Soddy Daisy Trojans as they won their second game of the season for a 1-1 start on November 21 before losing the next 21 in a row.
That first win came on the road at Sale Creek by a final score of 59-55.
These same two teams faced each other at Soddy Daisy Monday night and the results were the same as the Trojans snapped that long losing streak with a 62-48 victory.
“We had two pivotal players who really stepped up big for us tonight and that included Josh Perez and Hunter Burke,” said Soddy Daisy coach Reid Daniels following the game.
“Josh really played lock-down defense on Dominic May, who started off hot, while Burke had one of his best games of the season. We went to a man defense in hopes of forcing some mistakes, but we really got after them in the backcourt.
“There’s always a lot of emotion in this game as we’re practically next-door neighbors. Sale Creek has a really good team, but I felt really confident in my guys tonight. Not only did our defense improve, but we were able to hit some big shots in the second half,” Daniels nodded.
The Trojans raced to a 6-0 lead in the first 90 seconds and had a 14-11 lead after the first quarter.
Sale Creek’s Winston Tulloss converted a three-point play with 1:47 left in the second and the talented sophomore added two more free throws 20 seconds later as the Panthers regained the lead at 24-21.
Perez scored with just over a minute left in the half as the Trojans trimmed the lead to one and the difference was 24-23 at intermission.
May and Tulloss both scored on layups in the opening minute of the third quarter for a 28-25 lead and Tulloss scored five straight midway through the third for a 35-29 Sale Creek lead, but that’s where the tide started to turn as the Trojans finished the quarter on a 13-2 run and had a 42-37 lead with one quarter remaining.
Cameron Kirk scored on a layup with 5:46 left in the game to get the Panthers within four at 45-41, but the Trojans went on another run in the next two minutes to score 10 unanswered points for a 55-41 lead and it never got much closer.
Soddy Daisy’s biggest lead came at 60-44 with 2:50 to play when Burke scored on a layup.
“That was just a total collapse on our part,” said Sale Creek coach David Helton shortly after the final horn sounded.
“We had a nice lead, but I guess we just let the pressure get to us as they played harder down the stretch and wanted it more. We got too individualistic and weren’t playing as a team, but I’m really disappointed in the way we played. We just didn’t handle their pressure well,” Helton added.
Burke was the leading scorer for the Trojans as he finished with 17 points, including 10 in the third quarter alone and 15 for the half. He also snagged eight rebounds.
Jake Flippo was also in double figures with 14 points while Doug Volker and Perez had 11 and 10 points, respectively, for the winners.
Tulloss finished with 20 to lead Sale Creek, now 13-11 overall.
May was next with 13 while Kirk had eight points to go along with eight rebounds.
SALE CREEK GIRLS 39, SODDY DAISY 38: Abby Burton scored on a layup off an inbounds feed with 25.5 seconds to give the Lady Panthers a 39-35 lead and those turned out to be the winning points after Kirstie Williams canned a 3 at the buzzer for Soddy Daisy.
Tayla Willis scored 15 points in the first half and ended the game with 27 to lead Sale Creek while Burton was next with 10.
Junior Alexis Trimiar was the leader for Soddy Daisy with 13 points and 25 rebounds.
Williams was next with nine points while Emily Dent followed with eight.
GIRLS SUMMARY
SALE CREEK 8 11 11 9 -- 39
SODDY DAISY 10 11 10 7 -- 38
SALE CREEK (39) – Kidwell 1, Roberts 1, Shepherd, Burton 10, Holland, Willis 27.
SODDY DAISY (38) – Dent 8, M. Davis, Kearney 2, Trimiar 13, Williams 9, Hall 1, Hamby 3, B. Davis, Branam 2.
3-POINT GOALS: Sale Creek 2 (Burton 2); Soddy Daisy 3 (Williams 2, Hamby).
BOYS SUMMARY
SALE CREEK 11 13 13 11 -- 48
SODDY DAISY 14 9 19 20 -- 62
SALE CREEK (48) – Holland 3, McGhee, Smith 1, May 13, Tulloss 20, Ellis 3, Storey, Kirk 8, Poland.
SODDY DAISY (62) – Perez 10, Branam 3, Flippo 14, Humphreys 2, Massengale, Burke 17, Patton 3, Chambers 2, Volker 11, Durain, Coffelt.
3-POINT GOALS: Sale Creek 5 (Holland, May 3, Tulloss); Soddy Daisy 6 (Perez 2, Branam, Volker 3).
(email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)