Bucs bomb away late to down Cyclones, 78-69
Published 1:05 am Wednesday, December 18, 2019
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders Jake Roberts pulls up for a three-point attempt in Monday's game against U-H.
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders Nico Ashley launches a three-point attempt in Monday's game at U-H.
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders Parker Hughes dishes off the basketball in the paint against the Bucs Monday night.
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders Elizabethton's Nico Ashley swoops up and under the goal for a reverse lay up against U-H.
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders William Willocks of Elizabethton gets ready to pull up for a short-range jumper.
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders The Cyclones Parker Hughes sends a shot toward the rim.
BY IVAN SANDERS
STAR SPORTS EDITOR
ivan.sanders@elizabethton.com
JOHNSON CITY – For 16 minutes in Monday night’s basketball contest at Brooks Gym on the ETSU campus, the Elizabethton Cyclones were clicking on all cylinders offensively.
Going against a team that reached the state basketball tournament last season in Class A, the Cyclones were attacking the basket while keeping the Bucs at bay taking a 40-38 lead to the locker room.
After the break, however, the Bucs made adjustments and got a measure of the basket from beyond the arc to regroup and take a 78-69 win over the Cyclones.
“From our standpoint, we still don’t do the little things right, but we kind of knew that going in because we haven’t had a lot of days of practice to really work on fundamentals that we drill a lot more that we are a lot better at,” stated Cyclone head coach Lucas Honeycutt.
“But University High is a really good ball team and I think they shoot it really well. They played with a lot of energy and with a lot of heart.”
Elizabethton’s Jake Roberts picked up where he left off against Sullivan Central last week as Roberts knocked down four three’s in the first half and finished with 14 in the opening half.
Jordan Haynes came off the bench to drain a pair of treys as well with Nico Ashley and William Willocks adding five points apiece.
However, the second half was a different story as Marshall Fleener and Mason Broome took over for the home-standing Bucs.
Fleener began penetrating deeper into the paint and dishing off to either side of the wing and finding the distance inside and out as he collected 15 points in the second half.
Broome complimented Fleener bombing away for 11 points in the final half including three treys.
“They gave us all we really wanted,” Honeycutt stated. “It was hard for them to weather what we did in the first half and they did.
“We started out really hot and then we just relaxed a little bit. Once it was back and forth, they were just better executing than we were.
“There’s not a lot of things that we have in our playbook that we can run. Our all-around execution was poor – just poor but there is a little bit of excuse but not for long.”
Fleener finished with 26 points to lead the Bucs (6 treys) while Kaleb Meredith and Broome both finished with 20 points apiece as the trio accounted for 66 of the 78 points scored.
Ashley finished with a team-high 18 points for Elizabethton including another two-handed dunk that always gets the crowd revved up.
Willocks was close behind with 17 points while Roberts finished his night with 14 points.
Haynes and Donta Earnest collected seven points each while Parker Hughes (4) and Brayden Phillips (2) closed out the scoring for Elizabethton.
The Cyclones host Happy Valley tonight at 8 pm.
