Cyclones, Longhorns  win Watauga tuneups

By Allen LaMountain
ASST. SPORTS EDITOR
awlamountain@starhq.com

   The Watauga Conference jamboree was held Thursday night at VanHuss-White Gymnasium to provide an early season tune-up.
   In the opener Sullivan Central cruised to a 20-point advantage on their cross-town rival Sullivan North only to see the Golden Raiders rally behind 20 points from senior post Phillip Scarsellone.
   The Cougars were able to hold off North however, prevailing 41-30 as John LeSueur knocked down a pair of three-pointers enroute to a nine-point effort.
   Central led 26-8 before Scarsellone led the Raiders rally.
   Elizabethton 33
   Happy Valley 24
   Jordan Lambert poured in 15 points to lead the Cyclones to a win over the Warriors. Lambert opened with a trey and also hauled down five rebounds.
   "These jamborees give a lot of the young kids a chance to play," said EHS head coach Tony Hardin. "I was happy with the effort, but we still have a lot of little things to work on."
   B.J. Miller chipped in with six points and Brad Holtsclaw had four points and as many boards.
   Tim Whaley led the Warriors with nine points and Jeremy Maddox chipped in with five points while each grabbed four rebounds.
   "We hope to keep better as the season goes along," said Happy Valley head coach Charlie Bayless. "We have to keep getting the ball out on the wings and play good defense. We have a lot of young kids that played pretty well."
   Volunteer 29
   Unicoi County 26
   Marcus Bellamy and Andrew Nelms each scored seven points as the Volunteer Falcons held off the Unicoi County Blue Devils in game three.
   Senior guard Ben Southam canned a trey as Volunteer broke open a four-all game to take a 19-6 advantage before the Devils rallied behind Jonathan Grindstaff.
   Grindstaff was a force on the boards with six rebounds and two blocked shots in addition to scoring four points. Chris Kierman led the Devils with five points while Matt White added four points and Derek Hess chipped in with three.
   Johnson County 23
   Hampton 17
   Senior forward Matt Cornett scored nine points and Judd Shoun kicked in with eight and Frank Icenhour grabbed five rebounds while adding four points as the Johnson County Longhorns tripped Hampton.
   Sophomore Travis Smith completed a four-point play to close the Bulldogs to within 18-17, but the 'Horns pulled away as the 'Dogs shooting went south.
   "We have a lot of sophomores on the team," said Hampton head coach Bud Hazelwood. "Losing (Kevin) Harrison hurt. We expected him to be our leader. With a team this young there will be nights we look good and some nights not. We are very green right now, I don't think we have anyone that has more than 10-minutes of varsity time."
   For the Longhorns, head coach Austin Atwood thought that his squad, "Played hard, but playing hard doesn't guarantee you wins. We didn't play smart out there, but we have a lot of kids with good athletic ability. I feel that if we can get the team to buy into the team concept that we will do all right."