Vidrio, Blue Devils advance past gritty Warriors

ERWIN — It was win or call it a season. Unicoi County earned the right to continue playing basketball, defeating Happy Valley, 50-39, in the opening round of the District 1-2A tournament on Wednesday night at The Den. "At this time of the year it is about survive and advance," Unicoi County head coach Jordan Simmons said. "It wasn't pretty at times, but we did enough to come out with the victory and guarantee ourselves three more games and keep moving forward." Leading the way was senior guard Abigail Vidrio, who scored 11 of her 15 points in the opening half and helped the Blue Devils withstand a furious fourth quarter rally by the Warriors. "She is a senior, she has started for a couple of years. She was out the first half of the year with an ankle so she is finally getting into true form for her," Simmons said. "She is a little spark plug, on both ends of the floor. She gets after it, she plays hard and she is kind of catalyst when it comes to our energy. When she plays well we usually follow." Unicoi County did just that for much of the game, especially in the middle two quarters, outscoring the Warriors, 11-5 in the second quarter to take a 19-13 lead into the break, and then went on a 23-8 third period run to build the margin to 42-21 that was needed against the gritty Warriors. "The third quarter hurt us a little bit," Happy Valley head coach Rik Anderson said. "We missed a couple of assignments defensively, let a couple of them get loose and when you let them loose they are going to make you pay for it." Happy Valley had the advantage, 18-8, in the final period, but that 21-point deficit was too much to overcome. "Credit to Happy Valley, they battled their butts off. Rik does a great job and I know they are young and those girls showed a lot of fight and grit," Simmons said. "They have got a nice future ahead of them for the next couple of years, they have got some young girls that can really play. "A lot of credit to them, they knew it was going to be a fight and they came over and brought it to us. Luckily we had enough of a cushion after the third where we kind of withstood that run." Happy Valley was led by junior Alex Moore with 18 points, a definite bright spot this season for the Warriors. "She is our rock, she is consistent for us game in and game out," Anderson said. "We know what we are going to get from her every night. She just plays extremely hard every night. We are really proud of her." Moore's effort wasn't enough for the Warriors to keep up the Blue Devils in the middle two quarters, as Unicoi County also got trio of 3s and 11 points from Kaley Tomey, nine points by Brooklyn Sparks and seven from Carly Baxter. "We just have trouble scoring sometimes and get behind and when we get behind it is hard for us to catch up," Anderson said. "I can't fault our effort, we talk all the time about playing from the tip to the horn and I feel like we did that. Unicoi has got a good team. You let them get hot shooting the basketball, they are pretty tough." Happy Valley (8-21), which also got a pair of 3s and seven points from Amila Riddick, will lose Ashlynn Summers to graduation, but the future appears to be bright for the Warriors. "We will have everybody back. That is exciting for us, the future looks pretty good for us. We have got a good group coming from eighth grade so we are looking forward to that," Anderson said. "We have just got to get back in the gym and work on a little skill work and fundmentals. I think this group has a chance to be pretty decent." Unicoi County (18-12) continues on its late season run, with a date against Johnson County in the District 1-2A semifinals on Saturday at West Ridge High School. The clubs split a pair of decisions this season, with the Blue Devils winning by 21 in Mountain City and the Longhorns finishing on top by six in Erwin. "We started 0-3 in the conference and finished 7-3 in the conference. We won seven in a row, and nine of our last 10," Simmons said. "We are playing well at the right time, but Johnson County on Saturday, it is going to be tough, we know they are going to be physical, they are athletic, they are long, they can shoot it well so we will have our work cut out for us for sure. "We are excited about where we are at and for what comes next. Get ready for Johnson County on Saturday."