Cocke County splits in home conference opener

December 14, 2008 · Filed Under Basketball, Misc. Sports Reports 

NEWPORT-While structure can always provide a plan of attack, sometimes the best attack can be just plain chaos.
That’s what worked best for the Cocke County Lady Red on Friday night.
Cocke County ventured from a structured offensive attack to run-and-gun their way to a 36-point second half in dispatching the Lady Hurricanes of Morristown East 65-45 in an Inter Mountain Athletic Conference clash.

Later in the evening, the Hurricanes overcame a six-point deficit in the final minutes to steal a 66-63 win over the Fighting Cocks.
Cocke County’s high powered offense was led by senior wing Courtney Lewis, who scored 18 points on a 7-of-12 night from the field. Lewis’ performance was a rebound after being held scoreless in Tuesday’s conference opener at Morristown West.
“I have had some bad games,” Lewis said. “I knew I had to step up, these girls look up to me, I have to step and play my game.
“I can’t worry about anything else,” Lewis said. “I have to pep everyone up even if I have a bad game. I have to worry about the team, not myself.”
Lady Red (8-2, 1-1) coach Wade Wester said that he challenged Lewis and fellow senior Alex Suggs to play like seniors on Friday night against the Lady Hurricanes (3-4, 0-2). Lewis and Suggs, who average a combined 17 points per game, were held 13 points below that average against the Lady Trojans.
“I told both my seniors to play like seniors,” Wester said. “I was very impressed with the way Alex and Courtney played tonight.”
Wester said he was particularly glad to see Lewis respond to the adversity on the heels of Tuesday’s game.
“Courtney played well and I was glad to see it,” Wester said. “She felt like she let us down, she was visibly upset the other night.
“She came out (Friday) and she played like a senior,” Wester said.
Lewis’ 18 points were a season-high and part of a three headed offensive monster for the Lady Red, which included a pair of double-doubles.
Shannon Depew continued her All-Conference caliber season with a 15-point, 15-rebound night and Allie Sprouse contributed 12 points and 10 rebounds.
However, it was the run-and-gun attack of the second half that made the Lady Red turn a three-point halftime lead into a 20-point margin of victory.
“We were setting up and running too much offense,” Wester said. “I told the girls (at halftime) that we have to run and go. Once we started attacking, then we began pulling away.
“We quit worrying about running plays, we just started attacking. We wanted to score as many points as we could in the second half,” Wester said. “I think they kind of relaxed. When they set up a play, they are thinking so much that it gets them out of their rhythm.”
Lewis said that she felt as if the team was better suited to running the unstructured form of offense it displayed during the second half.
“Our team is a run-and-gun team, we just want to push the ball,” Lewis said. “We’re not a team that settles down and runs plays.
“Once we get our momentum going, and run hard, we start playing a lot better,” Lewis said. “We may have some more turnovers, but we’re a lot better.”
While the Lady Red used a high paced attack to outscore the Lady Hurricanes 36-19 over the final 16 minutes of the game, the Lady Red’s ball security remained just the same as if they were in a conventional offense. The team committed only five turnovers the entire game, with four coming in the final nine minutes of the game.
Wester attributed the ball security to solid point guard play.
“When we have one turnover, the point guard is taking care of the basketball and getting it to the right spot,” Wester said. “We took care of the ball and we were smart.”
Starting point guard Morgan Buda had a solid eight-point outing, while also recording eight assists - as the 5-foot-3 junior continues to lead the conference in total assists with 56. Sophomore Jayla Lane also recorded more minutes at the point guard slot on Friday after Buda was saddled with foul trouble most of the first half from her aggressive defensive play.
The Lady Hurricanes did make one run on the Lady Red late in the second half, piecing together a 12-5 run over the final 4:08 of the half to pull within three at the break. However a stingy Lady Red defense limited Morristown East to six second half field goals. Four of the shots came from leading scorer Samantha Hale, who led all scorers with 19 points, including four three-point shots.
Cocke County (65): Courtney Lewis 18, Shannon Depew 15, Allie Sprouse 12, Morgan Buda 8, Alex Suggs 6, Nicole Ball 4, Kendra Walker 2.
Morristown East (45): Samantha Hale 19, Leah Leeper 13, Megan Blaylock 6, Britney Turner 3, Emilie Hensley 2, Kayla Orrick 2.
CCHS: 27/61 FG (44.3%), 10/21 FT (47.6%), 1/6 3-PT FG (16.6%), 34 RBS, 6 TO.
MEHS: 16/45 FG (35.5%), 8/15 FT (53.3%), 5/12 3-PT FG (41.6%), 22 RBS, 13 TO.
Last-minute zaps Fighting Cocks
The goal of the conference schedule is to hold serve at home and steal a couple of wins on the road in order to jockey for tournament seeding.
Friday’s result may be painful. It may be even more painful when the tournament tips off in mid-February.
The Fighting Cocks (4-4, 1-1) saw a three-point lead evaporate over a 19 second period as Morristown East (7-1, 2-0) mounted a furious comeback to win 66-63 after trailing the entire fourth quarter.
Fighting Cocks coach Ray Evans said it was a tough result to stomach.
“I’m proud of my guys for fighting, but I’m kind of disappointed (about) the end,” Evans said. “It’s hard to lose one like that.”
Cocke County twice had large leads in the game, opening up an eight point advantage, the largest for any team in the game, with 5:15 left in the first half. However, the Hurricanes countered with a 15-6 run to take a 30-29 lead at halftime.
“When we got that lead, we relaxed, we stopped playing, we stopped attacking on offense, which is how we got the lead, we went and attacked the rim and they couldn’t guard us,” Evans said. “That was one of those stagnant periods in the game, where we dribbled the ball back and forth and just stopped attacking.”
Cocke County spent most of the third quarter chasing the Hurricanes and it was the second five of Evans’ five-in, five-out rotation that caught them and eventually gave the Big Red their first lead of the second half.
Evans’ bench mob was led by Barry Huffhines, who scored 12 points and had six rebounds in place of Hunter Dockery, who was in foul trouble all night. In all, the Fighting Cocks received 26 points off the bench.
“The second group came in tonight and played well,” Evans said. “They had a bit of an off game at West, but tonight they stepped up and played well. They got us back in the game and got us a lead.”
Cocke County regained the lead at a 43-42 margin with 20 seconds remaining in the third quarter and built up to a six point advantage with 3:53 remaining in the game.
The Hurricanes battled back, but the Big Red still held a 58-53 edge with 2:53 to play, when the Fighting Cocks kept attacking the basket with penetration from their guards and missing shots, which opened the door for the opponents to strike.
East tied the game at 58 with 1:36 to play, but Marcus Stewart, who led Cocke County with 13 points, countered with a three-point play at the 1:07 mark to give his team a lead. However, a quick basket by Casey Smith, who led all scorers with 23 points, put Cocke County up by one and two following turnovers allowed the Canes to grab a 62-61 lead.
Then controversy ensued.
Evans, who was growing agitated at the games officiating crew for the balance in foul calls in the second half, was whistled for a technical foul following the second turnover and subsequent foul call on Josh Wice. East converted three of the four free-throws to claim a 65-61 lead with 46.4 seconds to play.
“I threw my hands up in the air (saying) that enough is enough,” Evans said of what he did when he drew the technical foul. “They’ll say I shouldn’t have gotten the technical, and I shouldn’t have, but the game shouldn’t have been close when we were pulling ahead.
“Marcus Stewart is one of the best shooters in the league and he shoots two air balls two feet from the basket, that isn’t going to happen,” Evans said. “They’re all over his arms, pushing him in the back.
“We are on our home floor and the visiting team shoots 36 free throws to our 14,” Evans said, explaining his feelings on the officiating.
Cocke County never recovered after the five-point trip for East, pulling as close as 65-63 with less than 25 seconds remaining and had a final game-tying three-point shot by Stewart bounce off the rim as time expired.
Morristown East (66): Casey Smith 23, Justin Sandifer 14, Walker Bullington 10, Austin Snapp 9, Austin Gardner 6, Brian Coy 4.
Cocke County (63): Marcus Stewart 13, Barry Huffhines 12, Travis Glenn 8, Jeramie Haney 8, William Carmichael 6, Dustin Ball 5, Hunter Dockery 4, Kurt Brooks 3, Casey Ragan 2, Jake Green 2.
MEHS: 15/49 FG (30.6%), 22/36 FT (61.1%), 6/18 3-PT FG (33.3%), 30 RBS, 25 TO.
CCHS: 27/66 FG (40.9%), 6/14 FT (42.8%), 1/11 3-PT FG (9.1%), 27 RBS, 15 TO.
Up Next: Cocke County returns to action on Tuesday night for their final Inter Mountain Athletic Conference contest of the calendar year when they host the Cherokee High Chiefs and Lady Chiefs. Tip-off of varsity action is slated to begin at 6:30 p.m.

By SETH BUTLER
NPT Sports Writer

Share/Save/Bookmark

Tags: , ,

Comments

Leave a Reply