Westside cuts down Tigers

Westside cuts down Tigers

By Dan Stillwell
Register-Herald Sports Writer

CLEAR FORK — Faced with a big size disadvantage, Westside turned to its strengths against Shady Spring.

The Renegades ran the floor with impunity on offense, and made steal after steal in critical moments on defense, to easily turn back taller Shady Spring 66-42 Tuesday night in an opening round game of the Westside Holiday Tournament.

Westside (3-0) rode its fast break to a quick 12-3 advantage in the first quarter, then destroyed the Tigers’ offense with eight steals in the third quarter to put the game away.

“Those were the keys to the ball game,” Westide coach Jim Hopkins said. “We got them playing our kind of game. We’d worked on getting the ball out quick and using the body. You have to block them out and then hope you get the call when they come over your back.”

Westside outrebounded Shady 29-26 despite playing without its big man, 6-foot-6 Derek Goodson, who was out with a collarbone injury. The Tigers had 6-7 Derek Lewis and 6-7 Adam Dillon, but could not make headway inside against the hustling Renegades.

“The shots wouldn’t fall, and the physical play and speed hurt us,” said Shady coach Steve Clark. “We’re trying to be a finesse team with a few kids who can play physical, and we have a few bugs to work out.”

Center Chris Blankenship, taking up some of the slack for Goodson, scored two inside baskets and hit two foul shots as Westside pulled out early. Hopes of a quick blowout ended because of some foul trouble, and early in the third period Shady cut the deficit to nine, at 37-28.

Westside then turned up the defense, getting five steals from Justin Sizemore to key a 14-3 run. Shady could never get its offense rolling after that.

“We’ve needed to learn that when you have a team reeling, you have to take advantage of it,” Hopkins said. “We did that tonight.”

Guard Shawn Clark led Westside with 21 points. Blankenship had 17 points and six rebounds while Sizemore scored nine points.

Shady got 11 points and six boards from Dillon and eight points apiece from Lewis and Brandon Redden.

“We have several kids who can play. We just have to work them around and find the right combinations,” Clark said.

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Plain and simple, Mount View turned it on in the second half of the tournament opener against Liberty to win 72-52.

Down 30-21 at halftime, the Golden Knights dominated the Raiders on both sides of the floor during a 25-3 third-quarter run.

“We had a talk at halftime,” coach Kenny Brown said. “We turned up the intensity.”

Whether it was the outside shooting of James Edwards or the inside play of Shannon Thomas and Adrian Thomas, Mount View was all but unstoppable.

Edwards led all scorers with 25 points, including four three-point goals, and had seven rebounds.

Shannon Thomas scored 19 points and had 10 boards and five steals, while Adrian Thomas had 10 points and 10 rebounds.

The 4-1 Golden Knights outrebounded the 1-2 Raiders 37-11.

“If we don’t hit our outside shots, we’re going to struggle offensively to score,” coach Archie Johnson said. “Our biggest kid is 5-11, so we rely on our outside shooting. We don’t really have an option ‘B.’”

Erik Bower led Liberty with 24 points, 16 of which came in the first half. Sam Parris and Kyle Webb each added nine.

Liberty and Shady Spring play at 6 p.m. today in the tournament consolation game. Westside and Mount View clash at 8 p.m. for the championship.

— E-mail:

dstillwell@register-herald.com



Westside 66, Shady Spring 42

Shady Spring

Adam Dillon 5 1-2 11, Jason Staton 0 1-4 1, Derek Lewis 2 4-6 8, Doug Wiseman 2 0-0 4, Drew Walker 2 0-0 5, Brandon Frye 0 0-1 0, Brandon Redden 4 0-0 8, Micah Wimmer 1 0-0 2, Jerry Farrish 0 0-0 0, Aaron Crum 1 0-0 3. Totals: 17 6-13 42.

Westside

Justin Sizemore 3 3-3 9, Cody Toler 1 0-0 2, Eric Bailey 0 2-4 2, Shawn Clark 9 2-2 21, Marcus Gunter 2 0-2 5, James Krall 0 1-2 1, Tyler Davis 2 2-2 6, Kyle Lusk 1 1-2 3, Chris Blankenship 6 4-4 17, Derek Adkins 0 0-0 0. Totals: 24 15-21 66.

SS 5 16 10 11 — 42

W (3-0) 15 16 20 15 — 66

Three-point goals: SS: 2 (Walker, Crum); W: 3 (Clark, Gunter, Blankenship); Fouled out: none.



Mount View 72, Liberty 52

Mount View

Mike Helm 2 4-4 8, James Edwards 8 5-6 25, Antonio Horton 1 0-0 2, Eric Smith 3 0-0 6, Adrian Thomas 4 1-4 10, Shannon Thomas 9 1-1 19, Jason Martin 1 0-0 2. Totals: 28 11-15 72.

Liberty

Eric Bower 7 8-12 24, Kyle Webb 3 0-0 9, Austin Gunnoe 1 2-2 4, Matt Lucas 1 0-0 3, Sam Parris 3 1-1 9, Nolan Philogene 1 0-0 3. Totals: 16 11-15 52.

MV (4-1) 14 7 32 19 — 72

L (1-2) 15 15 10 12 — 52

Three-point goals: MV: 5 (Edwards 4, A. Thomas); L: 7 (Bower 2, Webb 3, Parris 2); Fouled out: none.