Unicoi County earned a road sweep of Happy Valley on Friday night in Three Rivers Conference basketball play. The Lady Devils earned a hard-fought 58-52 win while the Blue Devils cruised to a 63-48 victory.
The Blue Devils ran off to a 32-19 lead on the strength of 10 points from guard Brock Thompson and eight from post Austin O’Dell along with 10 Happy Valley turnovers. The Warriors were just 7-for-21 (33.3 percent) from the floor in the first half including 2-for-11 (18.1 percent) from long range.
“If you look at Tuesday’s game against Unaka it’s the same thing,” said Warriors head coach Jeremy Maddox. “We are just struggling to make shots. In the second half, we started to make them but couldn’t get a stop, so it was a role reversal. You can’t do that against a team like Unicoi County, because they make their shots.”
HV could shave just one point off the Devils lead going into the fourth period trailing 47-35 having outscored Unicoi County 16-15 in the third period.
The fourth quarter saw UC (3-3, 1-0 TRC) extend to a 54-37 lead at the 5:41 mark on a 3-ball from Thompson who hit three long-range shots in this contest. HV (2-4, 0-1 TRC) cut the lead to 10 after a 3-ball from Noah Stevens, but the Devils answered with four straight free throws from Danny Lowery.
Thompson and HV’s Stevens each scored 17 points with Thompson scoring 15 for UC and senior post Bruce Carter scored 16 for the Warriors.
GIRLS
Unicoi County 58, Happy Valley 52
Despite having the game’s high scorer in post Shalyn Whitson who posted 22 points, the Happy Valley Lady Warriors finished just 10-for-21 from the free throw line and fell to Unicoi County in Three Rivers girls basketball action.
“Free throws will kill you,” stated Lady Warriors head coach Thomas Gouge. “We practice them every day. We played solid defense in the second half but we came out flat early, and that makes two games in a row we have done that. We have to learn to start from the tip but give my girls credit; they didn’t quit, we just ran out of time.”
The Lady Blue Devils (5-1, 1-0 TRC) opened with a short flourish and led 20-13 after one period. Unicoi County extended it’s lead to 36-24 by the half with guard Kaylee Henrickson leading the way with ten first-half points.
Post Allee Griffith added seven and Chloe Powers had six for the Devils. Senior guard Adrienne Henegar hit a pair of 3-ball’s for Happy Valley (3-3, 0-1 TRC) and had nine first-half points. Post Shalyn Whitson added eight.
The Warriors clawed their way to a 49-40 deficit by the end of the third quarter with tight defense and nine points from Whitson in the period.
GIRLS
Unicoi Co. 58-52
Unicoi Co (58)
Hendickson 11, Powers 14, Edney 2, Holt 5, Street 2, Podvin 7, Vance 6. Griffith 11
Happy Valley (52)
Long 7, A. Henegar 10, Absher 1, Ball 9, Whitson 22. A. Henegar 2, Lunceford 1
Unicoi Co. 20 16 13 9 – 58
Happy Valley 13 11 16 12 – 52
3-point goals: UC 7 (Hendrickson 2, Powers 3, Podvin 1, Griffith 1), HV 5 (Long 2, A. Henegar 2, Ball 1)
Unicoi Co. 63-48
Unicoi Co (63)
Thelen 3, Thompson 15, Casey 17, Lingerfelt 6, Lowery 8, O’Dell 14.
Happy Valley (48)
Willis 9, Stevens 17, Young 3, Carter 16, Roberts 2.
Unicoi Co 14 18 15 16 – 63
Happy Valley 8 11 16 13 – 48
3-point goals : UC 4 (Thompson 3, Lingerfelt 1), HV 8 (Stevens 5, Willis 3)