©2010 NPT PHOTO BY SETH BUTLER

Lady Red junior guard Cidney Ball looks to pass in Thursday's loss to Morristown West.

NEWPORT-A battle of top 10 teams in Newport on Thursday night saw the state's top ranked team take advantage of takeaways in keeping their grasp as the number one team.

No. 1 ranked Morristown West converted 41 points off of 31 turnovers by the No. 10 ranked Lady Red in a 63-52 affair. 2009 Miss Basketball finalist Taylor Hall led Morristown West with 23 points and Allison Jones scored 17, while CCHS was led by Shannon Depew's 15 points and Allie Sprouse's 12.

In the boys game, Cocke County took an 81-71 win with a 20-point night from Marcus Stewart, despite 34 points from Morristown West's Anthony Sanders.

However the night was dominated by the story of takeaways by the Morristown West Lady Trojans defense.

West High (No. 1 AP, Class AAA; 20-1, 10-0) utilized their tenacious full court press to force a season-high 31 turnovers for Cocke County (No. 10 AP, Class AAA; 18-5, 8-3), putting their guards under duress. With the absence of senior point guard Morgan Buda (ankle), Lady Red guards turned the ball over a combined 21 times in the game.

"We had 31 turnovers, but you're not going to play mistake free basketball against them," said Cocke County coach Wade Wester, who's team dropped into a tie for second place with Jefferson County in the District 2-AAA standings with the loss. "I think the Lady Vols would turn the ball over against them.

"They're long, tall, smart and quick," Wester said. "We held our own though and kept our composure and battled them through the whole four quarters."

Wester continued by acknowledging the potential success that existed for the Lady Trojans as they progress towards another sectional round appearance, which would be their sixth appearance in the round of 16 since 2000.

"To have a chance to play the number one team in the state, doesn't happen very often, so it was an honor for us to go against them," Wester said. "They're a great coached team and disciplined and they do a lot of good things on the floor.

"It's fun watching them, I just hate watching them when we play them," Wester said. "They're a great team and I really believe they're going to win the state this year, especially when (Sidney) Goins (knee) gets back, everybody better look out."

Morristown West coach Johnny Galyon felt fortunate that his team escaped with a win, while getting outplayed in the half court game, which exhibited a physical style of play. Galyon's team became only the third squad in the last three years to win on the Lady Red's home court.

West, without the services of senior All-State wing Sidney Goins (knee) did not shoot the ball well, hitting on only 36 percent from the field, including 23.8 percent from three-point range and was out-rebounded by the Lady Red by a 38-33 margin.

"I didn't feel like we played the type of game we expect, we didn't shoot it well, and we got beat pretty bad on the boards," Galyon said. "But on defense, we turned them over, scored a bunch off of their turnovers, and we won by double figures. We're just happy to get out of here with a win.

"You look at Cocke County and they have won so many in a row on this floor, and it's really hard to come in here and leave with a win but we did it," Galyon said.

Cocke County held a brief 12-11 lead at the end of the first quarter, before the Lady Trojans utilized 16-0 run over the first 3:50 of the second period to take control of the game and a 27-12 lead. Five Lady Red turnovers in that span powered the Morristown West run.

CCHS rebounded however and came back to close the half down 31-21, only to see Morristown West to go on another turnover induced run to lead 49-29 heading to the fourth quarter.

The Lady Trojans outscored Cocke County 30-2 on points off turnovers by taking advantage of 18 turnovers in the second and third quarters.

Cocke County did respond in the fourth quarter to cut into the West lead after being down by 22 with 6:24 remaining in the game. Shifting to a man-to-man defense and success from behind the three-point line saw Cocke County to rally to cut the lead to nine in the final minute of the game.

"I'm so proud of how we didn't quit, because I felt like when we played Mt. Juliet, we quit and gave up," Wester said. "Tonight we were down 22 and we just kept battling.

"I can't say enough about how they kept battling and stayed with it," Wester said. "I was on them hard and they kept their composure - better than I did - and they just rallied together."

Galyon, whose team has outscored their opposition by 30.5 points this year and only won one game (Cleveland) by less than a 10-point margin, said his team won't win by that margin every night and must focus on playing their game.

"We are not going to win every game by 30 or 40 like a lot of people think we will, and the expectations are so high for this team," Galyon said. "It puts a lot of pressure on us, but the girls need to realize that they only need to play our game and try to perform every night up to our ability."

The two teams will meet again on Friday night in Morristown in Cocke County's next game and Wester said his team will evaluate the video from this game and work on the mistakes and build on the successes before facing West again this week.

"We're going to watch the video and see the mistakes we had and how to get better," Wester said. "I think my girls left this game with a confidence. I think they figured out that are a good team, I just don't know if they didn't trust themselves or what.

"I know we lost by 11 tonight, but we played a pretty good team, held our own at times except for the turnovers and battled to the end against the number one team in the state," Wester said.

 

MORRISTOWN WEST (63): Taylor Hall 10-21 1-3 23; Allison Jones 5-10 7-9 17; Lindsey Wild 2-7 1-2 7; Megan Fanney 2-4 3-5 7; Shelby May 1-3 2-4 4; Kelley Smith 1-11 0-0 3; Sierra Lyons 0-2 2-2 2; Summer Kerley 0-0 0-0 0; Leslie Berquist 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 21-58 16-25 63.

COCKE COUNTY (52): Shannon Depew 5-8 2-2 15; Allie Sprouse 5-12 2-3 12; Jayla Lane 3-8 0-0 9; Jalese Pruitt 3-8 3-4 9; Kendra Walker 1-5 2-2 4; Nicole Ball 1-1 0-0 3; Cidney Ball 0-3 0-0 0; Samantha Ray 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 18-45 9-11 52.

3-point goals--Morristown West 5-21 (Taylor Hall 2-8; Lindsey Wild 2-6;

Kelley Smith 1-7), Cocke County 7-16 (Shannon Depew 3-3; Jayla Lane 3-7; Nicole Ball 1-1; Kendra Walker 0-2; Cidney Ball 0-1; Jalese Pruitt 0-2). Fouled out--Morristown West-Allison Jones, Cocke County-None.

Rebounds--Morristown West 33 (Taylor Hall 6), Cocke County 38 (Shannon Depew 17). Assists--Morristown West 7 (Megan Fanney 3), Cocke County 12 (Kendra Walker 4; Shannon Depew 4). Total fouls--Morristown West 21, Cocke County 19. Technical fouls--Morristown West-None, Cocke County-None.

 

FIGHTING COCKS GET OFFENSIVE

Cocke County (15-7, 6-5) had taken two of their last three District 2-AAA contests with smothering defense.

They won their third of the last four with offense. They had no choice as their lackluster defense could not put the stops to Morristown West (6-15, 2-8).

Cocke County exploded for 81 points with a balanced scoring effort and had four players in double figures as the team shot 50.9 percent in the game.

"Balanced scoring is the key to our team," Fighting Cocks coach Ray Evans said. "We've got a couple of guys we could ask to do more scoring, but I think we do better when we move it around and share it.

"The kids don't mind, they're not selfish on offense and they don't care to move the ball around," Evans said. "If we don't have balance, we struggle."

Marcus Stewart paced Cocke County with 20 points and junior guard Jared McGaha came off the bench to provide 14 points, including hitting all four of his shots from three-point range. Casey Ragan and Chase Atkins also scored in double figures for Cocke County.

While all was golden on offense for the Fighting Cocks, who shot their highest percentage from the field since consecutive November wins over Dobyns-Bennett and Tennessee High, defense was entirely different.

Morristown West's 71 points was the fourth highest allowed by CCHS this season and the manner that it occurred in had Evans irritated.

"I felt like when we did score, we were busy jogging down the court and patting ourselves on the back, while they were shooting lay-ups," Evans said. "I made that a point at halftime and it didn't change in the second half.

"We were slow getting back on defense, that's got to change, and if it doesn't change we're not going to win a whole lot," Evans said. "There are not a whole lot of nights where we can score 81 points and shoot as well as we did tonight."

Morristown West outscored the Fighting Cocks 18-4 on fast break points and guard Anthony Sanders had a career night, scoring a game-high 34 points. Sanders slashed to the basket and had half of his 12 made field goals come on fast break baskets.

While Sanders scored 34 points and Elliott Stone added 21 for the Trojans, little else went right for Morristown West, which has struggled to a 2-8 start in league play. Only three other players scored for West High and no one scored more than seven other than the two leading scorers.

The disparity in the distribution of scoring was a key in the game as Cocke County outscored Morristown West's bench 24-0 in the game.

Cocke County took a 33-28 lead at halftime and saw West open the half on a 9-2 run to tie the game at 37 early in the third quarter. Following a timeout, CCHS turned up their defensive pressure and utilized a 20-10 run over the final 4:51 of the third quarter to put distance between the two teams.

"We came out in the second half kind of hesitant and flat," Evans said. "It was like we were trying to protect the lead.

"We're not a good team when we play hesitant," Evans said. "We've got to be in attack mode 90 percent of the game and so I told them to be attacking, get their hands up on defense and we got some easy steals and lay-ups in transition."

Morristown West did cut Cocke County's lead to four in the early portion of the fourth quarter, but then proceeded to put the game away over the final 3:30 of the game.

The game represented what Evans felt was a microcosm of his team's season, with great play leading them to good things during the game, but laying off to allow a sub-.500 team back into striking distance of them on several occasions.

"Hopefully these guys will understand they can be as good as they want to be, but they've got to be consistent," Evans said. "They can't take plays off on defense, they can't stand around and they've got to have their hands up. When we do the little things, we're going to be a hard team to beat."

 

COCKE COUNTY (81): Marcus Stewart 6-9 8-9 20; Jared McGaha 4-4 2-2 14; Casey Ragan 4-8 4-4 13; Chase Atkins 5-8 0-1 10; Heath Ford 2-4 3-4 8; Jeramie Haney 3-8 0-1 6; Krys Cates 2-5 0-0 5; Logan Suggs 2-9 0-0 5. Totals 28-55 17-21 81.

MORRISTOWN WEST (71): Anthony Sanders 12-20 7-10 34; Elliott Stone 8-22 2-2 21; Chad Brooks 1-2 5-8 7; Bowe Craine 2-5 2-2 6; Christian Gordon 1-2 0-2 3; Daniel Butler 0-2 0-0 0; Michael Cantwell 0-0 0-0 0; Ryan Brady 0-0 0-0 0; Josh Henrichs 0-0 0-0 0; Preston Bryant 0-4 0-0 0. Totals 24-57 16-24 71.

3-point goals--Morristown West 7-22 (Elliott Stone 3-7; Anthony Sanders 3-6; Christian Gordon 1-2; Daniel Butler 0-2; Preston Bryant 0-4; Chad Brooks 0-1), Cocke County 8-15 (Jared McGaha 4-4; Logan Suggs 1-2; Krys Cates 1-1; Casey Ragan 1-3; Heath Ford 1-1; Jeramie Haney 0-2; Marcus Stewart 0-2). Fouled out--Morristown West-Chad Brooks; Bowe Craine; Elliott Stone, Cocke County-None. Rebounds--Morristown West 30 (Elliott Stone 14), Cocke County 39 (Heath Ford 7). Assists--Morristown West 9 (Chad Brooks 6), Cocke County 13 (Casey Ragan 5; Heath Ford 5). Total fouls--Morristown West 23, Cocke County 15. Technical fouls--Morristown West-None, Cocke County-None.

 

IMAC ACTION

Only one other District 2-AAA contest was played in the latter half of the week, as scheduled games on Friday between South Doyle-Morristown East, Sevier County-Morristown West and Cherokee-South Doyle were postponed.

On Thursday night, Jefferson County took a sweep of visiting Seymour. The Lady Patriots won 55-52 behind Haley Nelson's 25 points and the Patriots won 54-50 over last place Seymour.

Current girl's standings are: Morristown West (10-0), Cocke County (8-3), Jefferson County (8-3), Sevier County (6-5), Seymour (5-5), Morristown East (5-7), Cherokee (1-10), South Doyle (1-11).

Current boy's standings are: Sevier County (10-1), Jefferson County (10-1), Morristown East (7-5), Cocke County (6-5), South Doyle (4-8), Cherokee (3-8), Morristown West (2-8), Seymour (2-8).

 

UP NEXT

Cocke County returns to action on Friday night against the same Morristown West teams in Morristown. Tip-off of varsity action is set for 6:30 p.m.

Cocke County's scheduled game with Jefferson County on Saturday was postponed to February 11. The scheduled game that night at Greeneville has been moved to February 12, in place of the home finale with Farragut which was cancelled by the Knoxville-area school on Thursday afternoon.