Vols rain 3s on Saks

By EASportsToday.com
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Updated: December 7, 2016

Flenord, Williamson combine for 9 of Clay Central’s season-high 12 3-pointers as the Volunteers pull away from Saks in the second half; the teams combined for 18 3s in the game.

Davyn Flenord’s long-range shooting skills didn’t leave him when the game ended. He drained a midcourt shot during a halftime promotion in the girls game. (Photo by B.J. Franklin/GungHo Photos)

By Al Muskewitz
East Alabama Sports Today

ANNISTON (Dec. 7) — Appropriately, Davyn Flenord wears No. 3.

The Clay Central shooting star dropped five 3-pointers on Saks in a game his whole team was hitting front beyond the arc in a 62-48 matinee victory Wednesday.

Flenord was just a little bit off firing at the loose rims in the first half, but taking encouragement from his former NBA-playing dad Gerald Wallace at halftime, he buried three 3s in the first four minutes of the third quarter as the Vols (3-1) pulled away.

The last of the treys was a high, arching shot that dead-dropped through the hoop after hitting high off the backboard. All Flenord could do with that was spin and raise his eyebrows in disbelief. He finished with a game-high 19 points.

“I was thinking I got my shot back,” he said. “A couple of them weren’t falling down in the first half, so my dad was like keep shooting and hopefully they’ll fall. They started falling in the second half so when I started seeing them fall I kept shooting the ball.

“We just had to be patient and wait for our time to come.”

Flenord’s sniping didn’t stop when the game was over. He came out of the stands at halftime of the girls game buried a shot from mid-court.

But he wasn’t alone in finding the stroke from long range. Taking advantage of Saks’ difficulty playing man-to-man defense against them, the Vols drained a season-high 12 3-pointers against the Wildcats’ zone. They would’ve had a 13 had the bomb Joe Bullock buried at the buzzer not been waved off as a no-shot.

The most shots the Vols had made behind the arc in a game this season prior to Wednesday was eight against Benjamin Russell; Flenord and Jamal Williamson combined for nine, seven in the second half. Ben Street, Quan McKinney and Bullock each had one.

“We got some guys who can shoot it well,” Vols coach Joby Burns said. “If we’re making them, we’ll be pretty good, but the nights when we don’t, we struggle, like the first half.”

Saks took advantage of the Vols’ cold snap to put together a 13-0 run that gave them a 10-point lead three minutes before halftime. Junior Devaughn Beason hit three 3-pointers in the run and showed the floor presence these young Wildcats sorely need. He led the Cats with 18 points.

The Vols closed to within three right before halftime, but Alfonza Ward hit three free throws with basically no time on the clock to send Saks into the lockers with a 29-23 lead.

Clay Central turned up the defensive and shooting heat in the second half and scored more points in the third quarter than it had the entire first half.

“They did a good job of taking him (Beason) out of the game in the second half,” Saks coach Jonathan Miller said. “They didn’t play a lot of help off him and made sure they had a good athlete on him.

“When we’re good, we’re good and when we’re bad we’re really bad, so there’s not much middle ground with this team. We get hot, we’re pretty danged good; the first half I thought we played pretty well. Devaughn was hot tonight, but once they took him away we struggled. We’ve got other guys who can score, we just didn’t do it tonight.”

Clay Central’s Ahnyah Denny (23) goes hard to the basket against Saks’ Miracle Dennard. (Photo by B.J. Franklin/GungHo Photos)

BOYS GAME
Central-Clay County 62, Saks 48
CENTRAL (3-1) – Davyn Flenord 6 2-2 19, Ben Street 6 0-0 13, Jamal Williamson 5 0-0 14, Shamari Simmons 0 0-0 0, Quan McKinney 1 0-0 3, LaShawn Simmons 1 0-0 2, Joe Bullock 5 0-0 11. Totals 24 2-2 62.

SAKS (3-2) – Darien Briskey 3 2-6 8, Devaughn Beason 7 0-0 18, Laderrick Bell 1 0-0 3, Alfonza Ward 3 3-3 10, Tray Huguley 3 1-2 7, Jamal Stone 1 0-0 2, Brent Clark 0 0-0 0, Jaylen Young 0 0-0 0, Jalen Borders 0 0-0 0. Totals 18 6-11 48.

Central-Clay Co. 13 10 25 14 — 62
Saks 13 16 9 10 — 48

3-point goals: Central 12 (Flenord 5, Street, Williamson 4, McKinney, Bullock); Saks 6 (Beason 4, Bell, Ward). Total fouls: Central 10, Saks 6. Officials: Holmes, Baker, Robinson.

GIRLS GAME
Central-Clay County 79, Saks 68
CENTRAL – Ashley McNeil 1 0-0 2, Alicia McNeil 0 0-0 0, Claire Daugherty 1 2-2 4, Ahnyah Denny 6 8-12 23, Cidney Daugherty 1 6-6 8, Essence Cunningham 5 2-4 14, Cassie Ragland 8 6-8 22, Angel Jennings 3 0-0 6. Totals 25 24-32 79.

SAKS – Izzy Shaver 2 1-2 6, Maiya Northard 4 2-2 12, Amiya Carlise 1 0-0 3, Takeida Borden 2 2-3 7, Amari Nealy 1 0-0 2, Summer Baxter 0 0-0 0, Miracle Dennard 8 4-5 23, TeeTee Jenkins 6 3-4 15, Alexis Petty 0 0-0 0. Totals 24 12-16 68.

Central-Clay Co. 20 17 21 21 — 79
Saks 14 10 16 28 — 68

3-point goals: Central 5 (Denny 3, Cunningham 2); Saks 8 (Shaver, Northard 2, Carlise, Borden, Dennard 3). Fouled out: Carlise, Borden. Total fouls: Central 18, Saks 23. Officials: Robinson, Baker, Holmes.