BY BRIAN HAMILTON
SEVIERVILLE – While Sevier County is severely limited due to injuries, from leading scorer Jett Sutton, to starting power forward Parker Newman, to defensive stalwart Roman Gibbons, among others, the Smoky Bears came out strong against South-Doyle on Friday afternoon. Sevier County took an early lead and never looked back, as the Smoky Bears shredded the Cherokees 83-51.
South-Doyle played as tough as it could, given that Vito Henderson nailed six three-pointers, but it wasn’t quite enough to take down the Smoky Bears.
“I don’t think we played to our capabilities today,” Sevier County coach Ken Wright said. “We didn’t do a good job stopping the ball and they penetrated too much. We didn’t identify their shooters either. (Henderson) has like six threes and that’s a sin. You’ve got to be there before the ball gets there. If you get there after the ball arrives and he gets his shot off, it’s going in.”
“The tournaments are so good because at the end of the year, you’ve got to play in that tournament format,” Sevier County coach Ken Wright. “You want them to get used to it.”
Sevier County and South-Doyle played it close in the early minutes of the first quarter, as the Smoky Bears held to a 9-5 lead midway through the opening stanza. Braden Huffaker scored and converted an old-fashioned three-point play to give the Smoky Bears a 12-5 lead, which was followed by a triple by Daniel Tarwater which made the score 15-8.
South-Doyle’s Holden Lowe (1) goes up for a basket over Sevier County’s Jaden Barton (22). Photo by Brian Hamilton
Vito Henderson nailed a three to pull South-Doyle to within 15-11, but a three-pointer and a short jumper by Tarwarter would inch the Smoky Bears’ lead to 20-11. Reed Ownby scored on a steal and layup, which was followed by a triple and layup by Jaden Barton, which capped off a 12-0 run and gave Sevier County a 27-11 lead with just over one minute remaining in the opening quarter.
Henderson and Holden Lowe sank a pair of threes to end the first quarter, pulling the Cherokees to within 27-17 going into the second stanza.
Sevier County’s Cooper Calfee opened the second quarter with a rebound and putback to make the score 29-17, but Reed Reynolds would answer for South-Doyle to make the score 29-19.
The Cherokees’ comeback would fall on deaf ears, however, as Sevier County would go on a 9-0 run, capped by a Brody Schraufnagel three-pointer, giving the Smoky Bears a 44-23 lead with 2:43 left in the first half.
Ownby sank a three-pointer within the last minute, as Sevier County went into the half with a 48-28 lead.
Barton came out and drained a jumped in the third quarter to push the lead to 50-28. Jonah Smith would sink a three for South-Doyle to cut the lead to 50-31, but Sevier County would then on an 11-0 run to take a 61-31 lead after a triple by Barton.
The Smoky Bears led 74-42 at the end of the third quarter and would go on to take down the Cherokees by a score of 83-51.
Jaden Barton led all scorers with 19 points, while Daniel Tarwater finished with 15, Cooper Calfee with 13 and Reed Ownby pitched in with 12.
“I didn’t think we played really well defensively,” Wright said. “Offensively, we scored the ball well, but we did a good job of run-outs and running the floor, but we’ve got to do better.”
South-Doyle was led by Vito Henderson’s 18 points. Henderson scored all 18 of his points on six three-pointers. Holden Lowe added 13 points for the Cherokees.
“You practice and you play to beat the good teams, and if you do that, you’re going to beat the bad teams,” Wright laments.
Tomorrow, Wright’s squad will have to beat a good team.
Sevier County (11-2) will face off against Lipscomb Academy (9-2) in the semifinal round of the Winterfest Shootout at 4 p.m.