The Chuckey-Doak girls used suffocating defense on Friday night to pick up a lopsided 58-24 win over Happy Valley in District 1-2A play.
“I thought we played really well as a unit,” Chuckey-Doak coach Kyle Donahue said. “We wanted to set the tone early and I thought we did that. We mixed and matched our defenses, and our defense transitioned into offense. I thought we really came to play tonight.”
The night started with the sister duo of Tralyn and Tavyn Southerland carrying the offensive load for the Lady Black Knights. Tralyn Southerland started the scoring with a triple from the right corner on an inbound play. Tralyn went on to score seven points in the first quarter while Tavyn put in six points.
On defense the Lady Black Knights did not allow a field goal in the first eight minutes and quickly found themselves in control at 13-2.
Tralyn Southerland led all scorers on Friday with a 16-point effort.
“When she is playing inside-outside that is when she is at her best,” Donahue said. “That requires them to play two different styles of defense. When we go four guards with Tralyn inside it allows us to be multiple and adds another layer to our offense.”
In the second quarter Chuckey-Doak’s full-court pressure was overwhelming for the Lady Warriors, and the Lady Knights scored 17 points off turnovers in the period. In addition to that it was more than 10 minutes into the contest before Happy Valley got a field goal to fall.
“I thought some of our bench girls came in and raised the energy level,” Donahue said. “That second quarter has been our problem for much of the year. It was good to see us have that kind of second quarter where we added to lead instead of falling behind. It was encouraging to see that. We weren’t in foul trouble tonight, and that was a big part of it, because our continuity didn’t break up.”
Layla Fox got things started for Chuckey-Doak with a steal in the back court that turned into a quick runner.
In a 30 second span Kennedy Brown stole the ball three times and turned them into quick layups for a 26-4 lead with 4:23 still left in the first half.
A steal by Jayden Myers set up Tralyn Southerland for another triple as Chuckey-Doak’s lead grew to 31-4.
Happy Valley finally found some offensive opportunities late in the period, but one more steal by Saniah Atchison before the horn sounded set up Isabell Karricker for a layup that gave the Lady Knights a 35-9 halftime advantage.
In the third quarter Chuckey-Doak pulled out of the press, but the stifling defense did not let up. It took over four minutes for Happy Valley to sink a shot and the Lady Warriors only managed five points in the period.
“We want to be multiple with our defense. One defense is not going to win this conference. I felt like we got great work in everything we did tonight,” Donahue said.
At the midway point of the quarter Tavyn Southerland sank a midrange jumper to push Chuckey-Doak’s lead to 44-9.
Chuckey-Doak got one more steal from Tralyn Southerland as she jumped an inbound pass and took it the other way for a 51-12 lead.
The period ended with Happy Valley’s Cayden Anderson sinking a jumper to close the gap to 51-14.
With the clock running in the fourth quarter Chuckey-Doak’s bench saw most of the action. On the other end Happy Valley finally found some offensive success and scored 10 points in the period, closing the gap to 58-24.
In addition to Tralyn Southerland’s 16 points Tavyn Southerland, Karricker and Chloe Kirkpatrick all scored eight points for Chuckey-Doak.
BOYS
HAPPY VALLEY 60, CHUCKEY-DOAK 44
Points were hard to find for the Chuckey-Doak boys on Friday night, and they could not keep up with Happy Valley in a 60-44 loss.
“I felt like we looked shell shocked in the first half. I don’t know how many baseline drives, or drives from the foul line in we gave up,” Chuckey-Doak coach Sam Broyles said. “But even with that we were only down six points at halftime. Turnovers killed us in the second half. They were just more physical than us, and once they got the lead it was hard for us to come back.”
Until there were eight seconds left in the third quarter three of the Black Knights’ starters had combined for one point, and throughout the contest shots inside seemed nonexistent for Chuckey-Doak. In the first half the Knights only managed two, two-point field goals.
“Dom (Atchison) and Ryland (Grindstaff) both picked up two fouls early, and I think they were worried about picking that third one up. That made them scared to drive, and made them less aggressive. That’s something they’ll learn to handle better once they get more experience,” Broyles said.
Despite their offensive woes Chuckey-Doak was within striking distance throughout the first half.
Ron Paul Parker carried the scoring burden for Happy Valley and put in three buckets in the paint for a quick 6-3 lead.
With 1:16 left in the opening frame Chance Malone knocked a straight-away trey that closed the gap to 11-8. Ryland Grindstaff then knocked down a step-back three-pointer for Chuckey-Doak to make it 13-11, but Happy Valley ended the frame leading 15-11.
The second quarter started with Ben Palazzo feeding Gavn Crum on the block for a reverse layup, but then Parker went to work for the Warriors and stretched the lead out to 23-13.
Bradley Caldwell put a dent in that lead with a rare four-point play, and Crum beat the buzzer with a triple to close the gap to 27-21 at intermission.
Crum scored the first bucket of the second half, but points remained hard to find for Chuckey-Doak in the third quarter.
Parker added six points for Happy Valley, and a put back by Austin Nickles pushed the lead to 41-29. Blake Lippard ended the period with an elbow jumper for Chuckey-Doak but Happy Valley held a 41-31 lead.
In the fourth quarter Happy Valley’s lead grew to 56-38 when Lane Parker got to the block for a bucket. In the final minute Grindstaff and Dom Atchison sank triples for Chuckey-Doak to close the gap to 60-44 at the final horn.
Crum led Chuckey-Doak on Friday with 12 points while Grindstaff had 10. Happy Valley’s Ron Paul Parker led all scorers with 24 points.
