©2009 NPT PHOTO BY SETH BUTLER

Cocke County senior shooting guard Marcus Stewart flies
to the basket in Tuesday's 67-64 win over Lenoir City.
Stewart led Cocke County with 23 points in the victory.

LENOIR CITY-Cocke County entered Tuesday night's season opener at Lenoir City with four members of their eight-man rotation without playing a lot of minutes at the varsity level.

They left Tuesday's game with experience and confidence that they can compete in the upcoming season.

Cocke County survived a tough environment and beat a tough; Tyler Hood powered Lenoir City team 67-64 in a Hall of Champions contest. The Fighting Cocks used an 18-4 run in the second half to overcome a 10-point deficit with 2:29 to play in the third quarter.

"Anytime you go on the road early in the year and get a win, that's good, especially when that's a good team we played tonight," Cocke County coach Ray Evans said. "We had an eight man rotation tonight and some of them stepped up and grew up a little bit tonight."

Cocke County (1-0) survived a slow start on offense and defense in the first half and only trailed 34-33 at halftime. The Fighting Cocks struggled defensively to contain Hood, a Samford University signee, as their significant height disadvantage played into the hands of the Panthers early on.

Hood had 12 of his team's 34 points at the break as Cocke County had defensive breakdowns that Evans attributed to the youthfulness of his team on the floor.

"We've got a couple guys in the rotation that are sophomores and are in their first year of varsity ball," Evans said. "I told them at halftime, we had to keep them in front of us and keep helping, especially when they got Hood on the block because we switch a lot on defense and if they catch him with a little guy on him they're going to go to him.

"If we do that, we've got to help down and switch back if we can before he gets it, if not we've got to double team him and force the ball out," Evans said. "Our defense is going to come around, we left a guy open on a couple of out of bounds plays, but when they step up we will be in most of our games I think."

Cocke County rebounded in the second half and defended better in the post, despite allowing Hood to get his points. The Fighting Cocks also began to get clutch shots from their pair of sharp shooters, shooting guard Marcus Stewart and Kurt Brooks.

Stewart led Cocke County with 23 points and continued to be the crunch time scorer for the Fighting Cocks by scoring 11 points in the fourth quarter. Brooks had 19 points including four three-point shots and a crucial driving basket in the fourth quarter from a high-post set.

"Marcus is our senior leader and he knows he's got to step up," Evans said. "When the game is on the line, he knows he's got to make free-throws like he did and he's got to make some buckets. I don't even have to tell him, you can just sense that about him, you can see it in his eyes.

"Kurt stepped up and made some big shots for us and took it to the basket when they started covering his three-point shot," Evans said. "I'm going to have to have those two score like that for us to be successful."

Stewart made big baskets down the line for Cocke County as they held on to a three or four point lead for the majority of the fourth quarter. However, the senior missed the front-end of a crucial bonus situation with a one-point lead in the final minute that set the stage for a dramatic ending.

Lenoir City held for the final shot and a jumper by Caleb Mabry was off the mark, but Hood appeared to get the go-ahead tip-in to fall, but he was whistled for a foul on the rebound attempt.

The foul allowed Stewart to sink a pair of free-throws for a 67-64 lead with 4.4 seconds to play to seal the victory.

Cocke County returns to action on Saturday afternoon as they host Volunteer in their final Hall of Champions contest. Tip time for the pair of varsity games is set for 4 p.m.

Cocke County (67): Marcus Stewart 23, Kurt Brooks 19, Heath Ford 9, Casey Ragan 8, Logan Suggs 4, Jeramie Haney 2, Chase Atkins 2.

Lenoir City (64): Tyler Hood 25, Dylan Powers 16, Landon Hilton 6, Jared Hilton 5, Caleb Mabry 4, Tyler Thomas 4, Hayden Park 2, Jordan Hall 2.

CCHS: 23/51 FG (45.1%), 9/16 FT (56.3%), 1/2 3-PT FG (50.0%), 46 RBS, 19 TO.

LCHS: 14/47 FG (29.8%), 5/10 FT (50.0%), 4/20 3-PT FG (20.0%), 18 RBS, 14 TO.