JONESBOROUGH – For three quarters Chuckey-Doak coach Sam Broyles felt like he saw a lot of positive things from his squad on Tuesday night, but in the fourth quarter homestanding David Crockett pulled away to an 87-57 win.
“I have to give these guys credit because they battled,” Broyles said. “We have to get under control on offense and I think we forced too much. But we’ll get better at that. Crockett is a very good team, they went to state last year, and I couldn’t be more proud of the way we battled. We just ran out gas at the end.”
In its first game at the Hardee’s Classic a Chuckey-Doak squad replacing almost it’s whole rotation from a year ago held strong with a Pioneers team that advanced to the Class 3A State Tournament, but challenging the lead remained difficult.
“We played about as well as we could in the third quarter, but it felt every time we got close they hit a three,” Broyles said. “We are not going to see many posts better than what saw tonight. If we can learn to play physical against players like that it’s only going to help us when we get into conference play.”
The night started with the Pioneers jumping out to a 13-0 lead in the first two minutes. Bradley Gouge, Caleb Eaves, Brody McGuire and Stephen Hensley all taking advantage of turnovers to get quick points on the other end.
Gavin Crum broke the streak with a three-pointer for Chuckey-Doak, and with 3:09 left in the first quarter Ryland Grindstaff sank three-pointer from the left wing while getting fouled. He made the free throw and closed the gap to 17-14.
Chuckey-Doak would not get any closer the rest of the night.
Dominque Atchison scored four points for Chuckey-Doak in the closing portion of the quarter but five points from Nolan Street allowed the Pioneers to close the period with a 26-18 lead.
In the second quarter David Crockett took a 12-point lead four times, but late in the period Atchison was able to power through the defense for a pair of putback buckets that closed the gap to 39-30.
Crockett took a 41-30 lead into halftime.
In the third quarter a fast-break layup by Eaves pushed the lead to 48-32, but a runner from Atchison and a third-chance putback by Grindstaff closed the gap to 48-38.
David Crockett closed the period with a triple from Cam Gouge and a layup from Reagan Cash to push the lead to 55-40.
In the fourth quarter the Black Knights ran out of gas and the Pioneers kept firing, landing three three-pointers in the final 1:24 to pull away to an 87-57 win.
Atchison led Chuckey-Doak with 16 points while Grindstaff put in 12 points.
For David Crockett Cash led the way with 21 points, Hensley had 19 and Bradley Gouge 14.
Chuckey-Doak will be back in action on Friday against University at 4:30 p.m.
