Chattanooga Christian basketball coach Eddie Salter is always happy when his Chargers win a big district game, but he wasn’t the happiest guy in the gym at Silverdale Friday night.
He liked what he saw as the Chargers played really inspired basketball in the first half as they built a 37-14 lead, but the second half wasn’t so pleasing to the veteran coach as his team got complacent and weren’t nearly as aggressive as they had been.
CCS prevailed by a 60-44 margin and improved to 5-3 overall and 1-0 in district play. Silverdale drops to 2-9 with its fifth straight loss and is now 0-3 in district play.
“I had to get after them a little bit,” Salter said with a smile after exiting the Chattanooga Christian dressing room following the game.
“We played great for a while as we pressed hard on defense and did a good job running our offense, but we got really lackadaisical in the second half. We’re just not consistent. I’m happy with the win, but we can play a lot harder.
“We have yet to put four quarters together. We need to have a sense of urgency and right now we don’t. We made the Final 8 last year and want to go a lot further this time, but we’ll have to play much better if those are our plans. It doesn’t matter who we play. We have to take care of business.
“I know we’re still in the first month of the season, but we still haven’t come together yet,” Salter added.
Silverdale coach Slater Belew isn’t big into moral victories, but he liked what he saw from his kids a whole lot more in the second half than the first.
“I’m proud that we competed tonight, but when you lose seven seniors and nine players total, we’re still trying to figure the right combinations as this is a brand new team,” he began.
“I thought we were a little intimidated at first, but we settled down a played much better in the second half. The future is bright as we’re really young, but we just have to learn how to play together. We played more our style in the second half and we kept competing.
“I’m not into moral victories, but we won the second half. I love their heart and willingness to play hard, but we have to learn something from every play on every day,” he added.
The Chargers got buckets from Treveon Scott and Grant Van Meter to get started and they never trailed as they finished the quarter on a 7-0 run for a commanding 18-4 lead after one stanza.
The Seahawks scored six straight points to cut a 30-8 lead to 30-14, but CCS responded with a 7-0 run of its own for a 37-14 lead at intermission.
The biggest lead of the game for CCS was seven points twice in the second half, the first at 50-23 following a layup by Scott with 32 seconds left in the third and the second at 54-27 after a layup by Mondo Ellison with 6:35 left in the game.
The Seahawks enjoyed a 17-6 advantage the rest of the way, but Chattanooga Christian’s lead was simply too big to overcome.
Michael Houge and John Rhodes set the pace for the Chargers with 13 and 12 points, respectively, while Amos Davenport was next with eight. Jackson Hilger and Scott added seven points apiece.
Graham Kelley had 13 points to lead Silverdale while Ben Bambrey followed with 11.
CCS had an unofficial 37-24 advantage on the boards with Houge grabbing 10 and Scott eight for the Chargers. Jordan Sanders snagged 10 for the Seahawks.
SILVERDALE GIRLS 65, CCS 59: The Lady Chargers got in foul trouble early and Silverdale took advantage, outscoring CCS by 25-11 in the second quarter for a commanding 41-25 lead at intermission.
CCS finally started finding the range in the fourth quarter as they made it interesting, but they never got any closer than the final margin of six points.
Audrey Canter had 17 points to lead Silverdale and was one of four Lady Seahawks in double figures.
Marlee Montgomery, who had a dozen in that explosive second quarter, finished with 16 while Laney Bone had 14 and Becca Lamb 11.
Kate Dirkse had 19 points to lead CCS while Addie Henry finished with 14, all but one in the fourth quarter. Madison Blevins scored all of her nine points in the final eight minutes as well.
Silverdale returns to action on Tuesday with a district game against Notre Dame while CCS will head South next Thursday for its next game at Dalton.
GIRLS SUMMARY
CHATTANOOGA CHRISTIAN 14 11 8 26 -- 59
SILVERDALE 16 25 9 15 -- 65
CCS (59) – Mary Vandergriff, Madison Vandergriff 2, Blevins 9, Henry 14, Davick, Brady, Ricketts 7, Walker, Youell 2, Dirkse 19, Lowe 6.
SILVERDALE (65) – Canter 17, Lamb 11, Hoover 3, Stiner, Bone 14, Renegar 2, Gibson 2, Montgomery 16.
3-POINT GOALS: CCS 6 (Henry 3, Dirkse, Lowe 2); Silverdale 6 (Canter 2, Lamb, Hoover, Montgomery 2).
BOYS SUMMARY
CHATTANOOGA CHRISTIAN 18 19 13 10 -- 60
SILVERDALE 4 10 11 19 -- 44
CCS (60) – Davenport 8, Rhodes 12, Van Meter 5, Ellison 4, Houge 13, Hilger 7, Tre. Scott 7, Hinton, Young, Sinor, Jones, Tra. Scott 4.
SILVERDALE (44) – Sanders 5, S. Bambrey 6, Lemery 3, Cline, Rogers 6, McInnis, B. Bambrey 11, Kelley 13.
3-POINT GOALS: CCS 3 (Davenport 2, Van Meter); Silverdale 4 (S. Bambrey 2, Lemery, Kelley).
(email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)