District 1 3-A Basketball Tournament… Cyclones take care of Vikings to advance to semifinals

Published 12:02 am Saturday, February 19, 2022

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BY BRANDON HYDE
STAR CORRESPONDENT
CHURCH HILL – Much like the anticipation of spring with a taste of warm weather, there was a big anticipation for area district tournaments as the Elizabethton Cyclones and Tennessee High Vikings tipped off at Volunteer High School in the District 1 3-A tournament.
Elizabethton came well prepared as they would cruise to an easy win over the Vikings, exploding in the first period and never looking back to take a 78-60 victory.
The Cyclones caught the Vikings off guard as Elizabethton quickly rallied for 22 points in the first period alone.  A couple of three-pointers by Bryce VanHuss and one by Seth Carter along with a fast break score by Jake Roberts and a nice turnaround jumper by Nicholas Wilson gave the Cyclones an early lead.
Elizabethton came to the game alert with excellent ball movement, rebounding and shooting while Tennessee High was still trying to warm up.
The same pattern continued into the second period as the Vikings continued to struggle with shooting while Elizabethton continued to add points.
The Vikings finally started to wake up about midway through the second period with Brandon Dufore for the Vikings subbing in.  The Vikes rallied a bit while taking advantage of a few Cyclone turnovers.  It looked as if the team from Bristol was mounting a comeback, but Elizabethton got back to their former self, staving off a full comeback attack by the Vikings.
Elizabethton would finish the half leading 38-20 as Wilson had some inside scoring and VanHuss added yet another three-pointer.
Going into the second half, the Elizabethton defense continued to make life difficult for the Vikings as they held the Vikings to a minimum.  Wilson made an early statement with an inside dunk only a couple of minutes into the period.  Bryce VanHuss would top this off by an additional three-pointer.
VanHuss, who would have six three-pointers and 19 points for the night, would hit yet another one a couple of minutes later making it 53 – 28.
At this point, Elizabethton was merely toying with the Vikings as the Cyclones were pulling everything down and making everything look effortless.  Viking scoring would usually only come if the Cyclones would shoot themselves in the foot, which was very, very rare.
Even then, there was a struggle for the Vikings to score. Elizabethton would increase their lead to  61-34 by the end of the 3rd.
The 4th period was pretty much cruise control for the Cyclones as the game was well in hand with no real threat materializing from the Vikings.
VanHuss was still hot with the threes, Wilson was just as strong inside and it was the same excellent rebounding and defense seen in the first half.
A little over midway through the period, the subs came in to finish up the job.  Elizabethton would take an easy win, 78-60 over the Vikings.
The big three for Elizabethton were VanHuss with 19 points along with Wilson scoring 17 and Jake Roberts coming in with 11.
—
Elizabethton, 78-60
Elizabethton (78)
Jake Roberts 11, Bryson Rollins 6, Nate Stevens 2, Seth Carter 15, Bryce VanHuss 19, Kaleb Hambrick 2, Nicholas Wilson 17, Mason Ball 6.
TN High (60)
Nysaiah Foote 4, Colin Brown 20, Maddox Fritz 7, Zander Phillips 2, Braden Floyd 3, Jimmy Phipps 2, Jack Singleton 4, Brandon Dufure 13, Riley Gentry 5.
Elizabethton…….22   16  23  17 – 78
TN High…………..  5   19  14  22 – 60

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