Big game by Butler almost gets Bulldogs past CAK
Published 11:30 am Wednesday, November 25, 2015
JONESBOROUGH–With seven key players still playing football, the Hampton Boys Basketball was shorthanded and not many people gave them a chance against the Christian Academy of Knoxville program in the opening round of the Hardee’s Classic at David Crockett High School on Tuesday evening.
The Bulldogs sought to prove everyone wrong and in the end almost left the state’s oldest town with a huge victory.
It was a herculean effort by a Builldog team that led most of the way until the fourth quarter, only to fall 62-60 in heartbreaking fashion.
One thing the loss does is avoids a conflict with the Hampton football team that is at home Friday night with a state title berth on the line against Marion County. The Bulldogs will take on Daniel Boone at 4 pm Friday and will give the Hampton players enough time to get back to Hampton to support its school in its quest to make history.
However, this group of young basketball players, taking advantage of their opportunity, showed that winning this basketball game was the only thing on their minds, and it turned out to be an amazing effort that Hampton head coach Ned Smith was very proud of.
“I am proud of these kids,” said Smith. “They came out and played extremely hard. They are young, we had some turnovers and we have to value the basketball, but overall it was a great effort.”
Hampton played an almost flawless first half, especially on the defensive end. The ‘Dogs got after it and CAK was struggling getting a flow to their offense.
CAK, who has been invited to one of the south’s biggest Christmas tournaments at the Arby’s Classic in Bristol this winter, trailed 29-19 at the half.
“I was pleased with how we came out, now we just have to finish down the stretch,” said Smith.
Even when things started headed toward a downward cycle in the second half, one thing that did not change was the play of Charlie Butler, who led the Bulldogs with 18 points and joined Chris Holtsclaw and Jared Andrews with 12. Butler added six rebounds, one short of Wyatt Lyons’ game high.
Lyons added seven points, Jose Velasquez had six and Chris Timmons had two.
Butler though was the glue that kept Hampton in it when CAK made a furious run in the second half.
“Charlie hit some big shots,” said Smith.”The football players will be a big help and when we put them all together we will make them jell and they will play hard.”
The Bulldogs also had trouble down low, especially with Bill Bower in the second half who had 16 for CAK, and is the son of former Johnson County football great Bill Bower, Sr.. who had a tackle for the University of Tennessee in the iconic 1986 Sugar Bowl against Miami.
With Hunter Reynolds also hurting Hampton with a game-high 20 points, the Warriors took the lead for good early in the fourth quarter and then held off a never-say-die Bulldog squad.
“I knew if we played hard anything could happen,” said Smith. “I knew the kids would compete.”
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David Crockett 84
Johnson Co. 50
The Longhorns have gotten a first hand look the last few days at how outstanding this Pioneer squad is, losing big to them in a Hall of Champions game last Saturday and then turning right around and having to face the Pioneers’ wrath again.
Johnson County beat Crockett late last season in Mountain City, but the strong Pioneer team that was led by 23 points from Patrick Good, 20 points from Dustin Day and 17 rebounds from Brendan Coleman wanted revenge and got it in a big way.
Crockett led 28-13 after one period and it ended up snowballing from that point on.
Johnson County was making its first appearance in the Hardee’s Classic since J.R. Campbell coached Johnson County in 2000. Crockett gave them a welcome back greeting they won’t soon forget.
“It’s good to get this type of atmosphere early and I am sure it was a little bit of a setup for what happened last year,” said Johnson County head coach Austin Atwood. “You have to go through them to win it anyway, we just really didn’t want to play them on the first night.
“Crockett was ready to go. Their press turned us over 25 to 30 times in the first half.”
The Pioneers return all five starters who ended last season in the lineup and though Good gets a lot of the attention, Day fills that supporting guy perfectly and on Tuesday he scored his 1,000th point.
The Pioneers were very good last year. This year Murfeesboro is the ultimate goal.
“I think we have bought in more and there is more chemistry,” said Day. “We have bonded with each other. We love each other and we praise God.”
The brightest star of the night for Johnson County was Atwood’s son, Blake Atwood, as the freshman guard finished with 11 points to lead the ‘Horns.
