Neither the Dalton girls nor the boys were close to having their “A” game Friday night at Southeast Whitfield. But against their hosts, who have a combined two wins between the boys and girls teams, they didn’t need to be.
The Catamounts got out to a 14-0 lead and managed to maintain that the rest of the way — despite early foul trouble from leading scorer Tristen Harrell — en route to taking an 82-63 win over Southeast. The victory sets up a winner-take-all Sub-region 7A-3A championship game between Dalton (17-6, 8-1) and LaFayette on Tuesday night at the Cats Den.
“I told the guys after the game that the worst thing that happened to us was when we went up 14-0,” Dalton coach Mike Duffie said. “It was like our switch just clicked and we got a little lackadaisical.”
The Lady Cats did all of their damage in the first half of a 61-40 victory, leading by 20 at the end of the first quarter and 42-9 at the half. Dalton’s girls have already assured themselves of a top seed in the region tournament.
Still, Dalton’s boys had a much tougher time than their 19-point final margin would indicate.
Harrell was called for his third foul with 6:15 left in the second quarter with Dalton holding just a 24-20 edge. That was when the Cats’ offense finally woke up.
With Harrell on the bench, Dalton turned to Rico Mears and a defense that was able to force Southeast (1-22, 0-10) into turnovers with its quickness. Mears had eight of his 18 points in the stretch from the time Harrell went to the bench to the end of the half as the Cats outscored the Raiders 22-10 to retake command of the game.
“Getting behind so early really killed us,” Southeast coach Jake Dickey said. “There were a lot of positives the rest of the game. You take away that start, and we only lost by five the rest of the night.”
Dalton led 31-25 when Ashton Storey hit a pair of free throws for Southeast, but even with Harrell on the bench, Dalton pulled away, thanks to a 13-3 run to take command. Mears’ free throws, a pair of baskets by Alexis Bautista and a 3-pointer from Brandon Painter keyed Dalton to a 46-30 lead at the half.
“I wasn’t real happy at the end of the first half and got onto the guys in the locker room, and then I realized we were on pace for 92 points,” Duffie said. “We scored 46 points, and I was fuming at the offense. Give Southeast a lot of credit. We got up by 14 early, but they got after it and kept coming.”
Southeast’s cold scoring continued in the third quarter as the Raiders managed just five points in the first six minutes of the period and Dalton led by as many as 25 at one point.
Harrell finished with 21 points and 11 rebounds despite having a poor night shooting from beyond the 3-point line. Tre Beck added 15 for the Cats, while Bautista finished with 11.
Southeast was led by Ashton Storey’s 23 points and 10 rebounds, while Gavin Hill finished with 12 points and eight rebounds. Devin Gentry chipped in 10 points.
Duffie hopes his team can forget the sloppiness of Friday and turn its attention to LaFayette.
“Now we focus on Tuesday,” he said. “We hope to have a big crowd for senior night with an important opponent. I told the guys to go out there and play loose and we’ll see who wins a title.”
Earlier in the night, the Dalton girls used their pressure defense to manhandle the Lady Raiders, sprinting out to a 20-2 lead to start the game as the Dalton tandem of Chandler McKinney and Maddie Howell seemed to score at will and seemingly back-to-back. The two combined to score 18 of Dalton’s first 20 points as the Lady Cats (17-5, 9-0) rolled to the victory.
McKinney and Howell each had 15 points, and Carson Sharp added 10. Dalton’s girls haven’t lost since a 12-point loss to Northwest Whitfield in the first game of the new year, and coach Jeff McKinney has liked what he has seen since coming back from the Christmas break.
“They come out to play hard every night,” McKinney said. “They don’t take a night off. They have learned to really play with each other on the offensive and defensive ends of the floor. There are things that each does that is a great asset to the team.”
Southeast’s Tiffani Hughes finished with 12 points, while Tavi Parris had nine points, five assists and six rebounds.
The Lady Raiders (1-23, 1-9) enter the last week of the regular season tied with Ridgeland in league losses.
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