Matt Dillon’s smoking six-shooter has nothing over the Elizabethton Cyclone boys’ basketball team as the Cyclones continued to send notice that they are a team to be reckoned with.

The Cyclones continue their recent surge with a 57-48 win over Unicoi Co. that gave ‘Betsy their second big conference win of the week after tripping up East on Tuesday night.

A lot of the credit for the Cyclone (8-2, 14-9) win had to go to a career-high evening by junior Michael Robinson who scored almost as many points as the Blue Devils (8-3, 15-10) as he finished with a game-high 35 points.

“Whenever you can shoot it, and you feel it that night while your teammates work the ball around and get it to you, that’s the day you put up big numbers,” said Robinson after the contest. “We felt like we had to get them back this time after we lost to them last time. We just practiced and practiced.”

The Cyclones performance was as impressive as Tuesday’s win as the Cyclones nudged out front and continued to build and hold onto the lead for the entire game.

Robinson dumped in 10 of his points in the first half as Elizabethton took a miniscule one-point lead to the break 18-17.

Bo Pless picked up the other points in the half as the senior post collected six.

The difference in this contest and the last between the two teams was the Cyclones ability to find the Blue Devil shooters before they could get off easy looks at the basket as the defense held Blue Devil sharpshooter Trevor Hensley to only six points in the half. Dylan Putman added five.

Elizabethton came out from the locker room and picked right back up where they left off as Robinson caught fire to net 12 in the third quarter to help extend the Cyclone advantage to 37-31 heading to the fourth period.

Hayden Townsend had a big hand in extended the lead as he chipped in with five points in the stanza.

The Cyclones continued to play smart basketball in the final quarter as they built their advantage to 11 at one stage of the period.

Unicoi Co. had one more run in them, however, as they whittled the lead down to four points with Robinson sitting on the pines with four fouls.

Elizabethton managed to do just enough from the charity stripe to preserve the win as Robinson was 7-of-10 from the line while Townsend added 2-of-4 to help out the cause.

Pless finished the contest with 12 points  with Townsend registering seven.

“It’s exactly what we have talked about all along—the kids are listening and doing what we ask them to do,” said Cyclone head coach Lucas Honeycutt about the winning streak the Cyclones are riding.

“It’s nothing special we’re doing. We’ve had success in the past, and we know what works,” added Honeycutt. “It’s just them doing little things like setting a screen and waiting on the screen, getting down in a stance on defense and not watching the ball. Those little things are what is winning us games right now.”

Hensley found his stroke in the second half draining the bottom of the bucket for 15 to give him 21 points to lead the Blue Devils.

Putman accounted for 14 and Jacob Smith added six points.

Elizabethton has two big conference games next week starting with Johnson Co. on the road Monday and then returning home Tuesday to entertain Happy Valley. The Cyclones close out the regular season on Friday when they host Science Hill for Senior Night.

Girls

Elizabethton….92

Unicoi Co. ……26

All eyes were focused on Kayla Marosites who entered the game needing only six points for 2,000 for her career, but Emily Kiser was the one stealing the spotlight.

Kiser torched the nets for 21 first-half points to lead the Lady Cyclones to the 92-26 win.

Marosites did break the elusive 2,000 point plateau with a trey at the 3:40 mark of the first quarter to give the senior 2,002 for her career at that point as the game was stopped momentarily to recognize the feat.

The victory also sealed the currently team of seniors as the team to have the most wins in a four-year career with 115 victories against only nine losses.

Elizabethton (10-0, 24-0) blitzed the Lady Blue Devils (6-5, 11-16) for 50 points in the opening half to enter the locker room with a comfortable 50-15 lead.

Marosites totaled 16 points in the first 16 minutes of the game. Melenda Perry collected six and Emily Schubert five in a contributing role in the opening half.

Hannah Rice was all the offense that the Lady Blue Devils had in the half as she scored 13 of the 15 points Unicoi Co. recorded. Neelee Griffith had the only bucket for the Blue Devils.

The Lady Cyclones kept piling on the offense in the second half outscoring the Lady Blue Devils 42-11 in the stretch to run away with the contest.

Kiser finished the night with 30 points to lead all scorers. She continued her hot three-point shooting as she hit on 6-of-6 from beyond the arc in the game and has hit 11 three’s in her last two games.

Kayla Marosites complemented Kiser with 21 points while Kelci Marosites and Melenda Perry each knocked down 12 points each. Emily Schubert closed out the senior squad scoring with five points.

Rice led the Lady Devils with 16 points. Neelee Griffith added eight points.

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Girls

Elizabethton, 92-26

Unicoi Co. (26) 

Chloe Powers 2, Hannah Rice 16, Neelee Griffith 8.

Elizabethton (92) 

Kayla Marosites 21, Kelci Marosites 12, Emily Kiser 30, Emily Schubert 5, Melenda Perry 12, Haley Burleson 2, Brittany Campbell 4, Ashley Depew 3, Autumn Lyon 1, Cam Koroma 2.

Unicoi Co………10     5     7     4 – 26

Elizabethton……25  25   23   19 – 92

3-PT GOALS: Unicoi Co. 4 (Hannah Rice 4). Elizabethton 15 (Kayla Marosites 4, Kelci Marosites 2, Emily Kiser 6, Melenda Perry 2, Ashley Depew).

 

Boys

Elizabethton, 57-48

Unicoi Co. (48) 

Hunter Hensley 2, Dalton Spears 1, Dylan Putman 14, Trevor Hensley 21, Chase McNabb 3, Clay Simpson 1, Jacob Smith 6.

Elizabethton (57)

Adam Cornett 1, Michael Robinson 35, Teve Mushayamunda 2, Hayden Townsend 7, Bo Pless 12.

Unicoi Co………   9   8   14   17 – 48

Elizabethton……14   4   19   20 – 57

3-PT GOALS: Unicoi Co. 7 (Trevor Hensley 3, Dylan Putman 3, Chase McNabb). Elizabethton 8 (Michael Robinson 7, Hayden Townsend).