Jr. Cyclones can’t complete repeat
Published 2:27 am Wednesday, January 29, 2020
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Star Photo/Ivan Sanders TAD's Will Churchill takes a steal back down the floor for the Jr. Cyclones.
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders Jr. Cyclone guard Jeriah Griffin uses a head fake to get a Greeneville defender airborne.
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders Eli Blevins of TAD takes the basketball strong to the rim for two points.
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders Jr. Cyclone Mason Ball looks for a shot while being closely guarded by a Greeneville defender.
BY IVAN SANDERS
STAR SPORTS EDITOR
ivan.sanders@elizabethton.com
KINGSPORT – If the T.A. Dugger Jr. Cyclones were going to advance to Thursday’s championship game in the TMSSA Area 1-AAA tournament being played at John Sevier Middle in Kingsport, they were going to have to pull off a repeat performance of their game against Sevier that allowed them to advance against Greeneville.
Unfortunately, the length of the Jr. Greene Devils plus key outside shooting held the Jr. Cyclones in check for most of the game allowing Greeneville the separation needed to take the win and advance to Thursday’s championship against Liberty Bell who defeated Vance.
On the plus side, there is still life remaining in TAD as the Jr. Cyclones will take on Vance on Thursday at 5:15 pm in the consolation game for third place with the winner advancing to the sectional tournament in Knoxville.
The Jr. Cyclones got off to a good start in the game as they worked out to a 13-10 lead at the first horn of the contest.
Luke Whaley took control early on for TAD as the sharpshooter scored eight of the 13 points with two threes and a field goal. Kyron Smalls also nailed a trey while Will Churchill added a deuce.
Hitting a small scoring drought in the second period allowed the Jr. Greene Devils to sneak back into the contest outscoring TAD 10-6 in the second quarter to seize a small 20-19 lead at the break.
The turning point in the game came in the third quarter when the Greene Devils went on a scoring run to push out to a 21-14 period and seize control of the contest by a 41-33 margin at the end of the third quarter.
Greeneville continued to control the scoreboard in the final quarter to pull out the win 57-42.
Unlike Saturday’s game, the difference in this contest came down to Greeneville’s ability to answer each run that TAD made in the contest as the Jr. Cyclones never laid down and continued to try and chop away at the lead.
Churchill led the Jr. Cyclones in the contest with 13 points and five rebounds. Whaley had a nice game as he collected 10 points to go along with four assists.
Eli Blevins and Jeriah Griffin also contributed for the Jr. Cyclones with six points apiece. Griffin also added three steals in the contest.
Smalls finished with three points with Zion Reddick and Mason Ball collecting two points each. Ball also cleaned the glass for five rebounds in the game.
Lester and Taylor led Greeneville with 18 and 15 points respectively with many of those points coming off easy baskets underneath the bucket.
