Tennessee High sweeps past Elizabethton in return to court

BRISTOL, Tenn. — It had been two weeks since Tennessee High had played a basketball game and close to that for Elizabethton due to the recent wintry weather. "It was rusty and it was ugly. I think turned it over 11 times in the second half," Tennessee High head coach Michael McMeans said. "You could just tell things just weren't clicking on all cylinders. We kind of expected that from both teams. You could see both teams were rusty. We just kept fighting." They came back in style, as Braden Howard scored 21 points and the Vikings limited Elizabethton to just five fourth quarter points to defeat the Cyclones 55-45 at Viking Hall on Saturday night to take control at the top in District 1-3A. Tennessee High (20-6, 4-1), which hadn't played since Jan. 23, outscored Elizabethton, 16-5, in the final period, led by a strong defensive effort that saw the Cyclones manage just one field goal and three free throws. "We just came in to compete, got our energy up and just tried to play with no hands and go for rebounds constantly," Howard said. "We slowed down, get ourselves together, we didn't take no crazy shots, just tried to move the ball and get open looks." Elizabethton (10-12, 4-2), which dropped a 72-63 decision to the Vikings on Jan. 20, led 26-25 after three quarters before Tennessee High locked down on defense, but the Cyclones still trailed just 47-45 after a basket by Hudson Pate with 1:29 left on the clock. They didn't score again. "I think their pressure had a lot to do with that. We really couldn't get where we wanted to, we didn't get the ball in spots for easy looks. I thought we got some of those in the first half," said Elizabethton head coach Lucas Honeycutt, whose Cyclones were led by Justin Whitehead — who scored all 12 of his points in the opening two quarters — and Evan Chambers, who also had 12 points. "They cranked up their pressure and they did a good job. "Their guys came down and hit shots when it mattered. The Howard kid, he did a really good job of controlling the game and had a great second half. He was good." In addition to scoring 14 second half points, Howard also combined with fellow guards Cannon Swift and Austin Thomas to make it hard on the Cyclones to get open looks. "That changed the game for us. We locked it down on defense," added Tennessee High head coach Michael McMeans said. "Those three guys really changed it and then you have got Reed (Miller) back there to protect the basket and that is major and then he was rebounding everything. At that point we kind of gained a little bit of control." Miller, who scored the first two points of the game with a dunk, finished with 12 points and 16 rebounds, while Swift scored eight and Russell Blevins added six for the Vikings. "Reed was huge, Braden, he took over. That and-1 he got there at the end, that was a great drive and he is really hard to guard," McMeans said. "He has been there, he understands the moment and he knows when you have got to go get one and that is what he did tonight." Nathan Bailey added nine points for Elizabethton, while Jackson Buckles and Pate had six points as all five starters played the entire second half for the Cyclones. "We are going to have to find some ways to get those guys some breaks and some rest and I didn't do a good job of that tonight. We played that same five the whole second half," said Honeycutt, who had some players under the weather on the bench. "I know they were fatigued, but obviously we are playing for first in the conference you have got to gut it out and we didn't make enough plays. I don't think it had anything to do with their effort, I think their effort was good." GIRLS Tennessee High 62, Elizabethton 54 Three Elizabethton scorers reached double figures in the Cyclones' overtime win over Tennessee High just two over two weeks ago. Two of those three didn't even get to 10 in this one as the Vikings rode 31 points from Addie Wilhoit, better rebounding and communication on defense to finish on top. "I think we definitely executed our game plan," Tennessee High head coach Amanda Vance said. "Last game they killed us on rebounds and in this game we did a much better job of boxing out and getting rebounds. I just felt like execution was really good tonight." Wilhoit had 37 in the loss at Elizabethton and added 31 more in this one, including 11 in the third quarter to lift the Vikings to a 48-44 leading going into the fourth period. Addi Moore added 13 points for Tennessee High (18-8, 3-2), while Taylor Carmody came off the bench for a pair of key buckets in the final period for the Vikings, which outscored the Cyclones 33-24 after the break. "I definitely think it was a great team effort win," Vance said. "Just like I told them, from the bench being in the game with energy and yelling to their teammates too. On the floor having energy and executing on offense." While Rylee May led the Cyclones (13-9, 4-2) with 16 points and twin sister Reagan May added 13, the Vikings limited Addison Bunn — who entered averaging 22 points a game — to eight points, while Jamira Smalls, who, like Bunn, reached the 20-point plateau in the previous meeting, to just seven. "Bunn, Smalls and Rylee all had big games the last game," Elizabethton head coach Lucas Andrews said. "Credit to them, they made some shots down at the end, they executed a little better than we did down towards the end and that is where the lead came from. "I thought the whole game you saw two teams that hadn't played in over a week. There was rust, but I thought both teams did some good things too."