Devil beaters… Cyclones close out the regular season in a rout of Unicoi County, 64-47
Published 12:38 am Friday, February 14, 2020
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Star Photo/Ivan Sanders The Showcase Dancers from Watts Dance Studio provided halftime entertainment during the boy's contest.
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders Tuffy was in the house for the Cyclones contest against Unicoi County.
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders Elizabethton's Nico Ashley snares a rebound and puts it back in for two points in the Cyclones win over Unicoi County.
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders Parker Hughes of the Cyclones has his eyes set on the rim in Wednesday's game against the Blue Devils of Unicoi County.
BY IVAN SANDERS
STAR SPORTS EDITOR
ivan.sanders@elizabethton.com
The Elizabethton Cyclones hadn’t forgotten their first meeting with the Unicoi County Blue Devils earlier in the season and the two goals this week were to beat the two teams that had defeated the Cyclones earlier in the year.
Mission accomplished.
After defeating South on Tuesday night, the Cyclones returned to the court at John Treadway Gym and seized the neck of the Blue Devils from the opening tip to run away with the win, 64-47.
The Cyclones are currently one of the hottest boys teams in the area after having developed their identity of an in-your-shorts defensive unit and turning that defensive effort into points at the other end through patiently running their offense.
“I don’t know how many people were surprised by what happened tonight but we were pretty confident that if we played well that we could have that same similar result,” said head coach Lucas Honeycutt about his team’s big effort. “It’s a momentum thing and we have talked about building off of every game heading into the tournaments.
“We just need to take the next game and gain confidence and not look too far ahead – just take it one game at a time.”
The game was never in doubt from the opening tip as Elizabethton quickly worked to a 33-16 halftime lead on the heels of eight points from senior post player Nico Ashley and seven points apiece from Donta Earnest and Parker Hughes.
Jake Roberts also drained two long-range treys for six points.
Meanwhile, the Cyclone defense was doing its thing against Blue Devil sharpshooter Brock Thompson who sizzled the Cyclones in their first meeting with 29 points.
Thompson guarded closely by Earnest for most of the contest scored only two points in the first half and only five for the game.
“We did a good job of defending him and keeping a hand in his face. The five points he got weren’t an easy five to get. That’s what we have to do a better job of and that is letting one player beat us and we need to defend the three better,” stated Honeycutt.
The Cyclones continued to play aggressively in the second half building their lead at one point to 30 points before several substitutions were made freely by both teams as the team drew to an end.
Ashley hit for 22 points in the contest for the Cyclones including two monster slam dunks much to the delight of the Cyclone fans that filled the stands.
Earnest had a solid game reaching double figures with 13 points while Hughes finished with nine.
Roberts added six points as did Nicholas Wilson who came off the bench to give Honeycutt some solid minutes on both ends of the floor.
William Willocks collected five points in the win while Brayden Phillips sank a trey to close out the scoring log for the contest.
O’Dell was the only Blue Devil to register double figures with 10 points in the contest. There were 10 different Unicoi Co. players who recorded at least one point.
With the win, the Cyclones stand at 12-13 overall and 10-2 in the conference and will enter the district tournament next week at Sullivan East as the number-two seed team in Three Rivers Conference play.
Unicoi Co. dropped to 15-13 overall and 6-6 in conference play and staring at a four seed in the tournament.
