‘Neers roll past Polk Co. varsity

By Adam Krohn

The North Murray Mountaineers may only be a junior varsity basketball team, but in the Southeast Hoopfest on Saturday, they proved once again they can compete at the varsity level.

The first-year program — which has only freshmen and sophomores but is playing its third varsity game of the season — beat the Polk County (Tenn.) varsity, 67-58, led by Tyler Duckett’s 20 points.

The Mountaineers (4-1) are 2-1 against varsity teams, having lost to Gordon Lee in Dade County’s Thanksgiving tournament on Friday. North Murray wasn’t initially slated to play in the Hoopfest tourney, but was invited by Southeast Raiders coach Josh Carter after Shiloh was a late scratch.

Duckett scored eight of the Mountaineers’ first 12 points by hitting his first two 3-point attempts and a pair of free throws.

“Warming up, I felt like I was going to shoot pretty good in this game,” said Duckett, who also added five assists, four rebounds and two steals. “It showed, I guess.”

The Mountaineers entered the fourth quarter with a seven-point lead and opened with a 13-8 run to go ahead 63-51.

The Wildcats (0-4) never got any closer than seven points.

North Murray coach Eric Bishop said his team finished strong, but he’s still searching for a complete game.

“That’s the style of basketball we intend to play from the very beginning,” he said.

“We really haven’t got it through to them yet because this is such a young group. We’re trying to get them to start out that way.

“I think both teams that we have here that we’re trying to integrate here — a freshman team and a JV team — are used to being a third-quarter team or a fourth-quarter team. Really, what we’re trying to establish at North Murray is that we are a full-blown, wide-open team from the get-go.”

For the Wildcats, the game played out eerily similarly to Friday’s 56-54 loss to Southeast. Polk County was able to keep the game close through three quarters, but as was the case against the Raiders, let the opposing team use a significant run to put the game away.

“We play so inconsistent and that’s the biggest thing,” said Wildcats coach Rusty Brewer, a former Southeast girls basketball coach. “We do some things well and then in a short stretch we’ll play completely different than the way we’ve been playing and that’s how we’ve played all year.”

Cody Malone finished with 12 rebounds and eight points and Zach Vess chipped in 13 points, eight rebounds and a steal for North Murray.

Polk County was led by Naaman Stillwell’s 18 points and Luke Silvers finished with 14 points, 10 rebounds and two blocks.

• Mill Creek 69, Rockmart 47: Also at the Southeast Hoopfest, The Hawks (3-1) were led by Kyle Speller’s 19 points and the Yellow Jackets (2-1) were led by Marqual Washington’s game-high 21 points.

Mill Creek was the only team to finish the round-robin event undefeated with three wins.

• Model boys 80, Mundy’s Mill 75 (OT): In Hoopfest play, the Blue Devils (2-1) were led by Ryan Leonard’s 24 points, while the Tigers (0-3) were led by Alex Rivera’s 28 points.

• Northwest Whitfield boys 60, Ringgold 49: At Ridgeland’s Thanksgiving tourney, the Bruins (2-1) led after each quarter and fought off a fourth-quarter Tigers run to escape with a win.

“They cut the lead to four late when we ran out of gas,” Bruins coach Ryan Richards said. “We made some turnovers and they capitalized on those, but our kids answered pretty good to extend the lead back out and win it.”

The Bruins, who finished 2-1 at the round-robin event, were led by Ryan Logan’s 17 points and eight points from Deon Washington, Nermin Delic and Michael Kelly.

• Ridgeland boys 59, Murray County 55: At Ridgeland’s Thanksgiving tourney, Zack England led the Indians (1-3) with 15 points, but it wasn’t enough against the Panthers, who were led by Dewan Harrison’s 25 points.

• Rome girls 63, Dalton 38: In the Adairsville tournament championship game, the Lady Catamounts (2-1) opened with a 12-6 lead, but were outscored 14-2 in the second quarter and never recovered.

The Lady Wolves (4-0) built their lead by going 17 of 19 from the free throw line while Dalton went 8-for-24.

“If we’re going to try and win big games we’ve got to do all the little things and we didn’t do that,” Lady Cats coach Jeff McKinney said.

“But we’ll get better. I’m disappointed with how we played tonight.”

Markisha Washington led Dalton with 12 points and, along with teammates Amanda Rector and April Besley, was named to the all-tournament team.

Rome’s Desiree Scott scored a game-high 15 points.

• Southeast girls 57, Model 50, OT: In the Hoopfest’s winner’s bracket third-place game, the Lady Raiders (2-1) overcame a nine-point fourth-quarter deficit with an effective full-court press and solid performances from Briana Sosebee (15 points, 14 rebounds) and Shelby McFarland (15 points, six rebounds and seven blocks).

“I challenged a few of our players at halftime and they stepped up,” Lady Raiders coach Elizabeth Crane said. “We came out a different team.”

Haley Lock added seven points, five assists and three steals and Danielle Pearson finished with seven points, five assists and two steals. The Lady Blue Devils (1-2) were led by Timia Reynolds’ 12 points.

• Murray County girls 51, Ridgeland 35: The Lady Indians (1-3) won their first game of the season and were led by Brooke Simmons’ 11 points. Ridgeland’s Rhande Hasket led all scorers with 20 points.

Varsity wrestling

• At the Heritage-Catoosa duals in Ringgold, Murray County went 4-1.

The Indians beat Ridgeland, 54-26, Ringgold, 49-18, Notre Dame, 52-22, and host Heritage, 46-28, before losing in the finals to Dade County on criteria (most pins) after a 39-39 tie.

The Indians (12-3) had the same amount of pins as the Wolverines, but forfeited a weight class.

Indians who finished undefeated at the event were Zac Headrick in the 103-pound weight class, going 5-0 with three pins; Dalton Lane (145, 5-0, four pins); Kolby Youell (152, 5-0, three pins); David Thornbury (189, 5-0) and Zac Dills (215, 5-0).