Tuesday’s boys roundup
- Updated: January 6, 2016
Cubs intense week off to good start, Hightower’s hot streak continues, Donoho whistles past Faith, also Weaver-Wellborn, Ohatchee, Talladega
By East Alabama Sports Today
It’s one thing to have to play three games in a row, but it’s something completely different when they’re three games in a row with meaning.
Alexandria opened a gauntlet of three area games in as many days Tuesday night with a 75-54 victory of St. Clair County.
It was an important game on several fronts. It earned them a large measure of revenge for losing their late-starting season opener and it keeps them in the mix to host the area tournament.
“It was good to get it back from them,” Valley Cubs coach Jason Johnson said.
The Valley Cubs (9-2, 2-1) have experience playing multiple games on consecutive days, but not like this gauntlet. Tuesday night started a three-game-in-three-days stretch all against area opponents.
The area adventure continues tonight at Anniston. The Cubs play at Lincoln Thursday.
“Fortunately we’ve played in two Christmas tournament and had to play three nights in a row to play in them,” Johnson said. “The guys are kind of excited about it. We’re going to go with it and see what happens.
“Fortunately we play about 12 guys we can rotate in. If we were only five, six or seven deep, it could be a big problem for us, but playing 12 I’m fine. We can reduce some minutes; that’s kind of the way we play anyway.”
Eleven players scored for the Cubs on Tuesday night. Caleb Young and Marcus Swink each scored 15 points and Luke Tucker had 13. Young scored 13 of his points in the first half. Gerald Murphy scored all nine of his points in the fourth quarter.
St. Clair County’s Kemo Davis led all scorers with 18 points.
White Plains 77, Cleburne County 48: Eli Hightower continued with the hot hand as he hit six of his team’s 12 3-pointers as the Wildcats remained undefeated in the area to set up Friday’s area showdown with Saks.
Hightower finished with 22 points, one of four Wildcats scoring in double figures. In his six games since Christmas, Hightower has scored 98 points and hit 26 3-pointers.
“He’s on a roll,” Wildcats coach Chris Randall said.
Hightower credits the run on an adjustment in his shooting mechanics, launching his shot on a higher trajectory. He has had at least six 3s in a game twice during this run.
“I’m shooting the ball about three or four feet higher than I was at the beginning of the season,” he said. “I changed and started shooting it higher because the shots have a better chance of going in if it’s shot high.”
Jerod Guthrie (12), Kevin Carr (10) and Quez Wyatt (10) also scored in double figures for the Wildcats. Jeremiah Blake led Cleburne County with 13.
The Wildcats also enjoyed their highest-scoring quarter of the season when they went for 32 in the second quarter to produce a 50-22 halftime lead. It’s the third time they’ve gone for 30 or more in a quarter this season and, ironically, they’ve all been in the second quarter.
Guthrie had 10 of his points and Murphy Doss scored all eight of his in the quarter.
Donoho 69, Faith Christian 62: The Falcons won in the series for the first time since 2013 and put them in position to control their own destiny with regards to their position in the area tournament.
“This was a huge win for us area-wise; we needed this one very badly,” first-year Falcons coach Alex Mastin said. “It puts us in an even bigger game Friday against Ragland. Our guys are really fired up. They thought if we could win this game it would get them over the hump confidence-wise for the rest of the season.”
It was a foul-plagued affair.
There were 60 fouls whistled in the game (37 on Faith), 76 free throws attempted and eight players foul out (six from Faith, including four of its starters). Donoho was 30-of-57 from the line; Garrett Steed was 12-of-20. Steed led the Falcons with 23 points.
“With a rivalry game, with Donoho and Faith, it’ll be a little chippy at times,” Mastin said. “I told our guys our biggest advantage in this game was our depth so if we could bring effort and intensity early we could wear down their guys.”
Caleb McCord kept the Lions in it early and Alex Taylor kept them in it late. McCord scored all 19 of his points in the first half. Taylor scored 14 of his 20 in the fourth quarter. Both players hit five 3-pointers.
They needed to find scoring somewhere, because the Falcons did a masterful job on Jordan Griswould, who scored 39 the night before. They held Griswould to four – a basket in the second quarter and a basket in the fourth.
“I was definitely well aware he scored 39 and our kids were well aware,” Mastin said. “They’ve got a lot of respect for him. It wasn’t hard to get them to buy into playing defense on him.”
Glencoe 48, Ohatchee 43: Pace Ozmint hit three of Glencoe’s five 3-pointers in the game and the Yellow Jackets were 11-of-19 from foul line in the fourth quarter to stay ahead of the Indians. Ozmint finished with 19 points. Jeff Ford was 8-for-10 from the line in the fourth quarter.
Ohatchee had three scorers in double figures led by Austin Tucker’s 12. Ben Glass had 11 and Brian Jennings had 10.
Weaver 69, Wellborn 48: After being run out of the gym the last time the teams plays, Wellborn was down only two at halftime despite heavy foul trouble. But after deep threat Blake Hanson injured his ankle, the points went down, the turnovers went up and Weaver was able to pull away. Hanson went back in but was limited. He is expected to have the ankle evaluated today.
Talladega 57, Shelby County 40: Jay Smoot scored 15 points and grabbed 12 rebounds as the Tigers scored an important area victory. Ashton Duncan added 13 points, Fred Dickerson scored 11 and Jae-lyn Russ grabbed 11 rebounds.
TUESDAY’S BOYS BOXSCORES
Alexandria 75, St. Clair County 54
ST. CLAIR COUNTY — Taylor Mickens 0 0-0 0, Colby Smith 1 4-6 6, Nyjil Cotton 0 0-0 0, Kimo Davis 6 3-4 18, Armond Brasfield 1 0-0 2, Chris Holmes 1 1-1 3, Jayce Fisher 1 0-0 3, Grayson Beatty 5 5-8 15, Justin May 1 0-2 2, Mason Anderson 1 0-0 3, Temothie Smith 0 2-4 2, Garrett Sanders 0 0-0 0, Grayson Coupland 0 0-0 0. Totals 17 15-25 54.
ALEXANDRIA (9-2) – Riley Shaw 0 3-4 3, Chase Smitherman 0 1-2 1, Austin Taylor 1 0-0 3, A.J. Martin 1 2-6 4, Dalton Dodd 2 1-2 5, Gerald Murphy 4 1-2 9, Cole Nail 0 0-0 0, Jamal Tucker 1 4-4 6, Jordan Romine 1 0-0 2, Caleb Young 7 0-0 15, Marcus Swink 6 3-10 15, Luke Tucker 5 2-2 13. Totals 28 17-32 75.
St. Clair County 10 15 15 14 — 54
Alexandria 19 16 21 19 — 75
3-point goals: St. Clair County 5 (Davis 3, Fisher, Anderson); Alexandria 3 (L. Tucker, Young, Taylor). Total fouls: St. Clair County 22, Alexandria 18. Officials: Smith, Wood, Stephen.
White Plains 77, Cleburne County 48
CLEBURNE COUNTY – Noah Ware 0 0-0 0, Hunter Carlile 3 0-0 7, Chad Brown 1 0-0 2, Josh Brown 0 0-0 0, Jeremiah Blake 4 3-6 13, Brock Swafford 1 0-0 2, Jacob Lee 2 5-6 9, Stashun Henson 0 2-2 2, William Rice 3 1-1 7, John Robinson 1 4-6 6. Totals 15 15-21 48.
WHITE PLAINS — Jerod Guthrie 4 2-2 12, Peyton Morgan 0 0-0 0, Dylan McCareeth 0 0-0 0, Kevin Carr 4 1-1 10, Eli Hightower 8 0-0 22, Jackson Guthrie 0 0-0 0, Quez Wyatt 4 0-0 10, Lawrence Jackson 3 0-0 7, Macey Carr 2 2-3 7, Murphy Doss 3 2-2 8, Brett Beaver 1 0-2 2. Totals 29 7-10 77.
Cleburne County 10 12 17 9 — 48
White Plains 18 32 15 12 — 77
3-point goals: Cleburne County (Carlile, Blake 2); White Plains 12 (Je. Guthrie 2, K. Carr, Hightower 6, Wyatt 2, Jackson). Technical foul: Hightower. Total fouls: Cleburne County 14, White Plains 17 Officials: Burroughs, Howell, Maske.
Donoho 69, Faith Christian 62
FAITH CHRISTIAN — Caleb McCord 7 0-0 19, Jordan Griswould 2 0-1 4, Riley Camp 0 0-1 0, Jameson Adams 4 0-0 8, David Wall 0 0-0 0, Grant Martin 0 0-0 0, Jack Sills 0 6-10 6, Michael Kulick 2 0-0 5, Jameson Thacker 0 0-0 0, Alex Taylor 6 3-5 20, Julien Key 0 0-2 0. Totals 21 9-19 62.
DONOHO – Reeves Nelson 0 0-4 0, Dylan Dunaway 0 0-0 0, Jack Svensen 0 0-0 0, Garrett Steed 5 12-30 23, Ross Svensen 3 3-7 9, Mateen Ibrahim 0 2-2 2, Joseph O’Neill 0 0-0 0, Ross Hagan 0 0-0 0, Tucker Sedmak 0 4-4 4, Mitchell Baker 2 6-9 10, Wilson Russell 1 0-0 2, Walton Montgomery 0 0-0 0, Robert Clausen 8 3-11 19. Totals 19 30-57 69.
Faith Christian 10 21 7 24 — 62
Donoho 22 11 14 22 — 69
3-point goals: Faith 11 (McCord 5, Taylor 5, Kulick); Donoho 1 (Steed). Fouled out: McCord, Griswould, Camp, Wall, Sills, Taylor, Baker, Russell. Total fouls: Faith 37, Donoho 23. Officials: Caldwell, Strong, Bankston.
Glencoe 48, Ohatchee 43
OHATCHEE – Ben Glass 4 1-2 11, Micah Lee 1 0-0 2, Jon Noel 0 0-0 0, Brennan Wink 0 0-0 0, Austin Tucker 5 2-2 12, Blaine Cole 0 0-0 0, Brian Jennings 4 2-4 10, Tristan Woodall 3 0-0 8, Sean Barnett 0 0-0 0. Totals 17 5-8 43.
GLENCOE — Aaron Bush 2 0-0 6, Jacob Bradley 0 0-0 0, Pace Ozmint 7 2-4 19, Justin Barkley 1 0-0 2, Cole Holbrooks 3 2-3 8, Craig Barkley 0 0-0 0, Dalton Roberts 2 1-3 5, Paul Hicks 0 0-0 0, Jeff Ford 0 8-12 8. Totals 15 13-22 48.
Ohatchee 11 5 11 16 — 43
Glencoe 12 10 6 20 — 48
3-point goals: Ohatchee 4 (Glass 2, Woodall 2); Glencoe 5 (Ozmint 3, Bush 2). Fouled out: Tucker. Total fouls: Ohatchee 21, Glencoe 10. Officials: Evans, Montgomery, Stringer.
Talladega 57, Shelby County 40
SHELBY COUNTY – Dean Carter 0 1-2 1, Cole Pate 2 0-0 6, Cory Martin 1 0-0 2, J.T. Owens 1 0-0 3, Quint Montgomery 4 1-1 10, Tae Whetstone 0 1-2 1, Tanner Brooks 2 0-0 4, David Watkins 4 5-10 13. Totals 14 8-15 40.
TALLADEGA — Fred Dickerson 4 2-2 11, Tyrese Scales 1 1-2 3, Jay Smoot 5 5-9 15, Jarvis McKenzie 1 0-0 2, Ashton Duncan 5 2-4 13, Jarmont Twymon 0 0-4 0, Damarco Truss 1 0-0 2, Wadderius Tuck 2 0-0 4, Robert Houston 2 0-1 4, Jaelyn Russ 1 1-2 3. Totals 22 11-24 57.
Shelby County 7 9 6 18 — 40
Talladega 13 15 16 13 — 57
3-point goals: (Pate 2, Owens, Montgomery); Talladega 2 (Duncan, Dickerson). Fouled out: Martin. Total fouls: Shelby County 17, Talladega 12. Officials: Baker, Warren, Holmes.
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