Cyclones, Lady Cyclones topple Happy Valley
Published 10:40 pm Wednesday, January 29, 2020
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StarPhoto/Larry N. Souders
The Lady Warriors Emily Lunceford (50) comes down with a big rebound midway through the fourth quarter as Happy Valley tries to rally late in the game.
StarPhoto/Larry N. Souders
The Lady Cyclone’s Renna Lane (20) is called for an over the back foul on Happy Valley’s Olivia Absher (25) as they crash the boards for a rebound in the fourth quarter.
StarPhoto/Larry N. Souders
The Lady Cyclones Kaitlin Bailey (23) lifts a floater down the center of the lane, splitting Happy Valley’s defense for two in the third quarter.
StarPhoto/Larry N. Souders
Elizabethton’s Donta Earnest (14) lifts the runner in the lane over the Warriors Dylan Willis (12) in the second quarter.
StarPhoto/Larry N. Souders
The Cyclones Jake Roberts (20) buries a three-pointer from in front of Elizabethton’s bench in the third quarter.
StarPhoto/Larry N. Souders
The Cyclone’s Nico Ashley (21) gets enough of his fingers on the jumper by Happy Valley’s Blake Young to deflect the first quarter shot.
BY ALLEN LAMOUNTAIN
STAR CORRESPONDENT
Blake Young led all scorers with 20 points for Happy Valley but despite his potent scoring, the balanced scoring of Elizabethton won out in a 59-45 Cyclones win in Three Rivers Conference basketball action at Bayless gymnasium.
Parker Hughes came off the bench and hit three triples to lead the Cyclones with 12 points along with Donta Earnest and EHS outscored HV 36-24 in the second half to break open a tight game.
“Hughes is so important to this team,” Cyclones head coach Lucas Honeycutt said. “If you saw our game last night and tonight, he has been sick and has had a rough go of it. He’s a tough kid and we appreciate everything he does for us.”
Elizabethton (8-13, 6-3 TRC) held a slim 22-21 lead at the half with post player William Willocks 10 points leading the Cyclones. Blake Young had 11 first-half points for Happy Valley (5-15, 2-7) with Alex Lunceford adding five.
EHS opened the third period with a 13-7 run to take a 35-28 lead at the 4:54 mark of the stanza. Hughes knocked down a pair of trey’s for the Cyclones with Jake Roberts also firing from long range. A trey from Young helped get HV back to a single-digit deficit.
From that point, the Cyclones outscored HV 7-0 for a 42-28 lead before James Harmon canned a triple to make it a 42-31 contest with 43 seconds remaining in the period. EHS took a 42-33 lead into the final quarter.
Hughes hit his third trey of the game and followed with a steal and three-point play as EHS extended to a 48-35 advantage before buckets from Lunceford and Dylan Willis made it 48-39 with 4:20 left in regulation.
EHS then went on a 10-4 run with Roberts and Nico Ashley each hitting from distance and that made it a 58-43 contest with 1:22 left.
“Whatever we can do down the stretch to try and get better position for the tournament we need to do,” Honeycutt said. “It’s a huge stretch of games for us these last weeks and we need to just keep getting better.”
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BOYS
EHS, 59-45
EHS (59)
Phillips 2, Hughes 12, Earnest 12, Roberts 11, Ashley 11, Willocks 11.
Happy Valley (45)
Willis 11, Young 20, Roberts 2, Harmon 3, Babb 2, Lunceford 7
EHS 6 16 20 16 – 59
HV 7 14 12 12 – 45
3-point goals: E 7 (Hughes 3, Roberts 3, Ashley), HV 3 (Willis, Young, Harmon).
GIRLS
Elizabethton… 33
Happy Valley… 27
The first half saw Kaitlyn Bailey and Kaylen Shell score all of the Lady Cyclones 17 points and lead the Lady Warriors 17-16 at the break.
Bailey scored all eight first period points for Elizabethton and had 12 first-half points. Senior post player Shalyn Whitson had seven points to lead Happy Valley in the first half.
A 13-4 advantage in the third period gave the Cyclones a 30-20 lead going into the final period. Bailey added eight more third-quarter points for EHS.
She finished with a game-high 22 points. The Cyclones defensively employed a 2-3 zone that stymied the Warriors into a 10-for-42 (23.8 percent) shooting night, including one-for-19 (0.52 percent) night from long range.
“We cut our teeth on man to man but tonight I thought the zone gave us a chance to win,” Lady Cyclones head coach Lucas Andrews said. “Bailey had a great night, I don’t know that she missed a shot.
“She is starting to get her legs under her. We are trying to find things that work for us and it is a work in progress.”
HV (13-10, 2-7 TRC) cut the lead to 30-25 in the fourth period behind three free throws and a deuce from Whitson who scored a team-high 15 points.
Shell knocked down a trey to stop the bleeding for Betsy and stake the Cyclones to a 33-25 lead.
Whitson hit a basket for HV but they could not get a trey to drop in the frantic final minutes.
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GIRLS
EHS, 33-27
EHS (33)
Bailey 22, Shell 8, Van Huss 3.
HV (27)
Moore 2, Campbell 1, Absher 5, Whitson 15, Lunceford 4.
EHS 8 9 13 5 – 33
HV 13 3 4 7 – 27
3-point goals: E 3 (Bailey, Shell, Van Huss), HV 1 (Absher).
