Dalton High started its season two weeks later than the rest of the area’s boys basketball teams.
Somehow, it’s everyone else — not the Catamounts — trying to catch up.
Senior guard Kelly Phillips scored 19 points as Dalton beat Northwest Whitfield 73-44 on Tuesday night in a non-region game at the Cats’ Den for its second consecutive win against a local rival, three days after hanging on for a 59-55 victory at Murray County.
Although Dalton’s Mike Duffie may not have had as much time as other coaches to work with his full roster this season, he knew the Cats (4-1) had advantages some teams didn’t.
“Tevin Collins, been in the program four years,” said Duffie as he scanned the scorebook. “Jessy Gonzalez, four years. Shaquon Moore, four years. Trae Washington, three years. Kelly Phillips, four years. Watts Dantzler, three years.
“We’ve got veteran players who have been through the wars so it hasn’t taken them nearly as long to get together as a group and find cohesion. Chemistry’s everything in basketball.”
The experience showed against Northwest (4-4) as Dalton managed to stay relaxed even in its fast-paced style of play, with the Cats holding themselves to nine turnovers while the Bruins had 15.
Both aggressive and solid on defense, Dalton limited the Bruins to 15 field goals and also outrebounded them, 44-15, with much of the work done by big men Jalen Fields (6-foot-4, 245 pounds) and Watts Dantzler (6-8, 300), who had nine each.
“Coach told us we needed to be a force on the boards,” said Dantzler, who scored 12 points. “Me and Jalen had a good night and that helped us out.”
The Cats’ years of playing together have shown up in an understanding of not only who fills what roles best, but when they need to be filled.
Senior guard Shaquon Moore scored the first five points for Dalton, but finished with only seven because he spent the rest of the night contributing in other ways.
“We know where our teammates are going to be at all the time,” said Moore, who added eight assists and seven rebounds to his stat line. “In the first quarter after I scored those first five points, I just started throwing the ball because I saw my teammates open. No point in me forcing my shot.”
Tre Beck had 10 points and six rebounds for the Cats, who led 20-9 after the first quarter, 30-19 at halftime and 57-31 entering the final period.
Northwest swept last season’s home-and-home series with the Cats, but the Bruins’ play for most of the night didn’t show anything reflecting that confidence — and that had a look of concern on coach Ryan Richards’ face after the loss.
Disappointed with his starters’ trouble applying the defensive adjustments he’d installed at halftime, he made a mass substitution early in the third quarter after Beck made back-to-back 3-pointers.
“We were trying to get some kids on the floor to play with the intensity that Northwest basketball has been based around for seven years,” Richards said. “I was proud of those kids because I thought they played as hard as they could play ... but they shouldn’t have been on the floor in a varsity basketball game.”
Baker Chiddister and Jarrett Bruce each had seven points to lead North-west.
Although Tuesday’s meeting didn’t figure in the Region 7-4A standings, the next one will. The Bruins host Dalton on Jan. 22, and by that time the race for postseason tournament seeds will be going strong.
Duffie and the Cats would no doubt like to be playing for one of the better positions when they head to Tunnel Hill. Based on early returns, they just might be.
“I like our group,” Duffie said. “If we keep everybody together, healthy and playing, I think we’ll have a good ballclub.”
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