Roundball season opened for T. A. Dugger’s Jr. Lady Cyclones on Tuesday as they welcomed the Lady Vikings from Vance Jr. High to the T.A. Dugger campus for two games.
While one game was a nailbiter to the very end, the other was a ship sinker as both junior varsity and varsity teams notched their first wins of the season.
Varsity
T.A. Dugger…56
Vance………..24
The Lady Vikings found the Jr. Lady Cyclones to be physical and running at a high tempo which caused them problems throughout the entire contest. Vance’s multiple turnovers opened the floodgates for T.A. Dugger who topped their Bristol opponents by 32-points, winning decisively in varsity action.
Using a 13-6 lead as their motivation in the opening quarter, the Jr. Lady Cyclones kept their foot on the gas the entire game.
“A lot of the early mistakes were just first-game jitters,” said Jr. Lady Cyclone head coach Matt Fox. “I told the girls at halftime that we had to play our game by pushing the ball, but to play in control.
“Vance is a very physical team — you have to give that to them. We missed a lot of passes that we should have made and took a lot of shots that we shouldn’t have taken.”
Kaylen Shell had the touch in the opening period, firing in five points to lead TAD. Shell had plenty of help as Kaitlyn Light and Macey Burleson tossed in four points apiece.
The Jr. Lady Cyclones crashed the board effectively for second and third chance points in the second period, managing to double up the score leading 24-12 at the intermission.
Lydia Schubert and Light paced the Jr. Cyclone push with three points each in the stanza. Kensie Nickles and Jadyn Ward netted two points to show the way for the Lady Vikings.
Coming out of the locker room, Coach Fox’s team continued to apply the defensive pressure which led to several easy buckets for the Jr. Lady Cyclones.
Light and Maggie Johnson led the way in the third period with six points each. Shell was close behind, contributing five points.
Annie Hayes had a big quarter for the Lady Vikings with six points.
The defense pressure applied by the Jr. Lady Cyclones was just too overwhelming for the ladies from Bristol in the fourth period as T.A. Dugger continued to pull away.
While holding the Jr. Lady Vikings to only four points in the final quarter, the Jr. Lady Cyclones got some solid scoring from Light who drained the nets for seven in the final period to finish with game-high scoring honors with 20 points in the contest.
Shell added three points to finish right behind Light with 13 points.
Hayes led the Lady Vikings with eight points while Sienna Fritt added four points.
The Jr. Cyclone ladies travel to Church Hill on Thursday for an encounter with the Panthers.
Junior Varsity
T.A. Dugger….17
Vance…………16
The opening game of the evening got the energy flowing as the Jr. Lady Vikings Tori Ryan stepped to the foul line with three seconds left. Her team trailed 17-16, and she had the opportunity to win the game for her team with two foul shots.
However, nerves got the best of the her as she rimmed her two shots. With the clock ticking away, there was a battle for the basketball, but the Jr. Lady Cyclones came away with the 17-16 victory in dramatic conclusion to the game.
McKendra Norris paced the Jr. Lady Cyclones JV with nine points for the contest while teammate Maggie Dugger tossed in four points as well.
Le Vanessa and Andessa Remington scored four points each to pace Vance.