The Chuckey-Doak girls used smothering defense to build a lead, and they never relented on the way to claiming a 51-30 win over South Greene on the road on Friday night.
“I thought we played really well. We came out aggressive and we pushed the envelope defensively. We forced turnovers and those led to points. We play better when our defense is leading into our offense,” Chuckey-Doak coach Kyle Donahue said.
Friday marked the third time this season that Chuckey-Doak has beaten South Greene, and it was the first time since December 21, 2010 that the Lady Black Knights have left Rebel Hill victorious. With the win Chuckey-Doak secures the No.2 seed and a first-round bye in the upcoming District 1-2A Tournament. South Greene will be the No.4 seed.
“We teach toughness and we teach response. We were disappointed on Tuesday after losing to West Greene, but I couldn’t be more proud of our response,” Donahue said. “We could have let the last game seep into this game, but instead we came out and attacked. I don’t know the last time we beat them here, and regardless of where we are playing or who we are playing, coming out and attacking I feel like speaks to our culture.”
Friday’s action started tightly contested with Chuckey-Doak finishing the first quarter with a narrow 10-7 lead. The Lady Black Knights scored the first five points with Lay Fox draining a three-pointer, but South Greene’s Neveah Davis responded with five points of her own.
Tavyn Southerland finished the period’s scoring when Kennedy Brown hit her for a back-door layup.
Chuckey-Doak scored the first nine points of the second quarter to go in front 19-7. Fox started the run with a jumper from the left wing and then the Lady Black Knights’ defense began to make it hard for South Greene to even get across the midcourt stripe. Tralyn Southerland sent a steal ahead to Tavyn Southerland for a breakaway layup, and then she used another steal to set up Brown.
“Anytime you play away in the conference you have to create you own energy,” Donahue said. “The more we turned them over the more our bench gets involved and the more we get defensive happy. That is so critical in a county game, and it showed itself tonight.”
South Greene’s only field goal of the period was jumper from beyond the elbow by Reagan Arrowood that closed the gap to 22-13. Chuckey-Doak went to half time leading 24-13.
A three-pointer by Davis allowed South Greene to close the gap to 26-18, but then Chuckey-Doak’s defense began to spark its offense once more early in the third quarter. Brown got out for a transition bucket after Trayln Southerland grabbed a rebound and sent a long pass ahead. Tavyn Southerland pulled up for a jumper from the elbow and a steal by Saniah Atchison set up Fox for a runner that pushed the lead to 34-18.
A free thrown by Natalie Foshie broke the streak, but then Chuckey-Doak scored six points to take a 40-19 lead into the fourth quarter.
Atchison did not score on Friday, but playing at the top of South Greene’s defense she led the Lady Knights’ shut-down performance.
“Saniah didn’t score tonight, but she is the catalyst for others scoring. She may not get as much fanfare, but she gets us started. She finds open shots for her teammates, and she played great defense on the perimeter,” Donahue said.
Chuckey-Doak’s biggest lead of the night came with 5:49 left to play when Belle Karricker put back an offensive rebound for a 48-21 lead.
Both benches emptied after that, and the reserves finished the game.
Tavyn Southerland led all scorers on Friday with 15 points while Brown had 12 and Fox scored 11 points for Chuckey-Doak. Davis led South Greene with eight points.
