ROGERSVILLE – After a disappointing start the Big H BBQ Bash at Cherokee High School the West Greene boys head into a little break feeling good after taking down Hancock County 63-38 on Saturday morning.
“I felt like we came out and played pretty well for a 10:30 tip,” West Greene coach Allen Tolliver said. “Offensively we started slow, but it was strong defensive effort. The offense came along in the second half and after that we looked more like the team I saw on Tuesday night, and not the one that was here on Wednesday and Friday. I’m proud of the effort and intensity, 1-2 is better than 0-3 heading into a break.”
The Buffaloes clung to a slim 21-18 lead heading into the second half, but in the third quarter the offense began to click, and that margin began to grow.
“We went to the locker room at halftime and talked about how important ball movement was,” Tolliver said. “I felt like in the first half it was getting stuck. We just had to do some little things that we got away from the last couple days. In that third quarter we really passed, cut and got open. We made one three in the second half, the rest were layups.”
With 4:39 left in the third period Braden McCamey scored through contact on a put back, and then he put back his own missed free throw for a 32-24 West Greene lead.
Hancock County answered with four points over the next minute, but then the Buffs got hot and closed the quarter on a 16-4 run.
Conner Campbell scored on an offensive rebound before Elijah Williams stretched the lead to 39-29 when he stole the ball in the backcourt and quickly tapped it off the glass.
Campbell added five more points, and the quarter closed in style when Ayden Lamons stole the ball on one end, sent it ahead to Williams who sent it ahead to Wisecarver for a buzzer-beating lay in that pushed the lead to 48-33.
“I don’t think (Lamons) gets enough credit for his passing, but when he gets a post touch he’s looking for his guards to cut. They did a good job cutting and we got so many layups on those drop passes,” Tolliver said. “Ayden did so many little things today. Braden McCamey was a rebounding machine in the second half. So many guys did good things for us today.”
Lamons scored the first points of the fourth quarter before Tytus Shelton got inside for two points. The lead grew to 56-36 when Lamons grabbed an offensive rebound and sent it to McCamey for an elbow jumper.
Luke Heck finished off the scoring with a layup and West Greene finished with a 63-38 final margin.
Things did not go as smoothly in the first half as they seemed to in the second half for West Greene.
The Buffs took control for the first time at 8-5 when Wisecarver sank a three-pointer from the top of the key.
Wisecarver followed by turning a steal into a lay in before Shelton got a block at one end that turned into a layup at the other. Another steal by Wisecarver resulted in a layup from Williams and West Greene led 14-7.
Hancock’s Isiah Fodor scored the final points of the period to narrow the margin to 14-9.
West Greene’s biggest lead of the first half was 18-9 after Campbell went under the rim for a reverse. Hancock answered with six straight points and Brady Swiney’s triple closed the gap to 18-15.
Three points the hard way by Swiney cut West Greene’s led to 20-18, but a free throw by Alex Johnson sent West Greene to halftime leading 21-18.
The Buffaloes used a balanced scoring effort on Saturday with Cambell and Williams each dropping in 14 points. McCamey scored 13 points, Wisecarver had eight and Lamons scored seven.
