The Chuckey-Doak girls used high-pressure defense and powerful play inside to pick up a 61-43 win over University High on Monday night.
“I thought we played hard, but we played at their level to start the game,” Chuckey-Doak coach Kyle Donahue said. “Once we started to push things defensively, we started to pull away, and that’s what we were looking for.”
University High was able to hang around early and even led at 7-5 after Lenny Ortiz laid one off the glass.
The Lady Black Knights went back in front when Sanaiah Atchison used a steal to start a fast break that Tavyn Southerland finished. Tralyn Southerland followed with a putback bucket, and then she sent a pass across the paint to Isabelle Karricker who put the Lady Knights in front 14-9.
Tralyn Southerland led the Lady Black Knights on Monday with 21 points, while Karricker came off the bench and put in 11 points for Chuckey-Doak.
“Belle played one of her better games in a long time. Tralyn played really well inside, she rebound the ball really well today. Any time we feel like we have that advantage inside we want to get the ball there. I think that was evident tonight with both Tralyn and Belle,” Donahue said.
The first quarter closed with Chuckey-Doak leading 18-13.
The Lady Knights opened up the game in the second quarter by using their defense to create extra opportunities for the offense. They were not always efficient, and had to sometimes take away possession multiple times to create points, but the stingy defense went six minutes without allowing a field goal. The Lady Knights mixed things up on defense, confusing the Lady Bucs with a 1-3-1 zone and their full-court pressure.
“We’re not the greatest shooting team so we need those extra possessions. We want to push the pace and get extra shots, and then we are not living and dying on a make or miss,” Donahue said. “It’s crucial that we turn people over. We switched up our defense a little bit and I think that helped us slow them down.”
On offense Tavyn Southerland started the scoring with a layup. Buckets by Layla Fox and Karricker followed and Chuckey-Doak held a 24-14 lead. Saniah Atchison assisted on all three buckets.
Over the final two minutes of the first half Tralyn Southerland put in a pair of free throws and Kennedy Brown landed a runner to send Chuckey-Doak into halftime leading 32-19.
In the third quarter Chuckey-Doak found success pushing the ball inside to Tralyn Southerland as she scored 12 points in the period. She pushed the lead to 38-21 less than two minutes into second half when she was fouled putting back an offensive rebound and made both charity tosses.
The lead reached 47-26 when Atchison took a steal the distance. Another transition bucket by Atchison pushed the lead to 51-28 heading into the fourth quarter.
In the final frame Chuckey-Doak emptied its bench but was able to maintain the lead to the finish. Karricker and Sarah Yates each scored four points in the period while Emma Chandley scored 12 points for University High.
Chandley finished the day with 22 points for the Lady Buccaneers.
BOYS
UNIVERSITY HIGH 69, CHUCKEY-DOAK 48
The University High boys stormed out of the gate on Monday night and ran away to a 69-48 win over Chuckey-Doak.
The night started with the Buccaneers scoring the first 13 points as Brady Weems nailed a pair of three pointers and Andrew Cole scored five points.
Ben Palazzo scored Chuckey-Doak’s first points with 3:23 left in the first quarter when he spun off a defender for a layup.
University’s scoring did not slow down and with eight seconds left in the period Cole stretched the lead to 24-6 with a triple. Ryland Grindstaff quickly went the other way for Chuckey-Doak and beat the buzzer with a triple that brought the Knights a little closer at 24-9.
In the second quarter the Bucs lead reached 31-9 when Weems took a steal the length of the floor. University’s biggest lead of the first half came at 36-12 when Cole Harley sank a three-pointer.
Chuckey-Doak closed the half with three-pointers from Chance Malone and Dom Atchison, but the Bucs took a 41-22 lead into the second half.
In the third quarter Grindstaff got the hot hand and put in 14 points for the Black Knights. He got a handful of short jumpers to fall and knocked down a three-pointer from the corner.
University High got three-pointers from Mason Croley, Cole and Patty Boynewicz to take a 58-40 lead into the fourth quarter.
In the fourth quarter Atchison scored four points for Chuckey-Doak and Grindstaff put in another three-pointer, but the Knights could not close the gap and fell 69-48.
Grindstaff finished Monday with 22 points and Atchison scored 12 for Chuckey-Doak.
For University High Weems had 17, Cole 15, and Croley 14.
