Although the game didn’t have all the glamour as the homecoming court, the Elizabethton Cyclones found the Johnson County Longhorns the same formidable opponent as always and had to scrap to beat the Mountain City visitors.

Behind a game-high 28 points from senior Michael Robinson, Elizabethton pulled away from Johnson County down the stretch 67-52.

“I looked over at my assistants and told them we had to speed the game up because Johnson County came down and set up and ran some good stuff,” said Cyclone head coach Lucas Honeycutt.

“They did a really good job running through their offense and looking for their second, third, and fourth option,” continued Honeycutt. “They knew what they were trying to get and players are going to get open. I though they did a really good job of that.

“Once we got the game sped up, I thought we were getting some easy buckets off layups and just getting out and running the basketball up the floor. They were a little bit slower on some rotations.”

After a tight first quarter where the Cyclones squeezed out a slim 15-13 lead, Elizabethton outgunned the Longhorns by 10 points in the second quarter to take a 35-23 lead at the break.

The difference in the quarter was needed as the second half played out in a small advantage in favor of the Cyclones 32-29.

Corey Russell hit double figures on the night with 10 points while Alex  Norwood and Eric Wilson added nine and eight points respectively.

It was one of Wilson’s better offensive outputs in recent games.

“We had size on them and it worked well with what we worked on in practice,” stated Wilson. “We wanted to be more aggressive and all shots don’t fall and we realize that.”

Johnson County was getting a great effort from Bud Icenhour and Blake Atwood trying to keep their team in the game as the pair hit for 19 and 17 points respectively.

It wasn’t going to be enough, however, as the Cyclones continued to keep pace with Sullivan East and Unicoi County in the Three Rivers Conference winning their 18 game of the season against only four losses.

Johnson County fell to 8-11.

Senior Mackenzie Lyons escorted by Hayden Townsend was named the 2017 Homecoming Queen at the half.

The court was made up of freshman Kaylen Shell escorted by Evan Carter, sophomore (Maggie) Malana Griffey escorted by Corey Russell, and  junior Destiney Little escorted by Tre Shoun.

—–

Elizabethton, 67-52

Johnson Co. (52) (2-5, 8-11)

Bud Icenhour 19, Blake Atwood 17, Nathan Arnold 4, Joe Lawson 3, Jordan Edes 3, Sean Lewis 6.

Elizabethton (67) (6-1, 18-4)

Michael Robinson 28, Evan Perkins 3, Eric Wilson 8, Corey Russell 10, Jacob Turner 1, Hayden Townsend 4, Alex Norwood 9, Carter Everett 2, Will Bowers 2.

Johnson Co. ….  13   10   14   15 – 52

Elizabethton….  15   20   15   17 – 67

3-Pt Goals: Johnson Co. 11 (Blake Atwood 4, Bud Icenhour 5, Sean Lewis, Joe Lawson). Elizabethton 5 (Michael Robinson 2, Corey Russell 2, Evan Perkins).