Jr. Cyclones outlast Happy Valley in OT
By Wes Holtsclaw
STAR CORRESPONDENT
It was almost a game T.A. Dugger's Austin Taylor
would want to forget about.
With the game tied at 30 a piece, Taylor was
fouled with no time remaining in the Junior Cyclone's contest
against the Happy Valley Middle Warriors last night and missed
two free throws under pressure to send the game in overtime.
Taylor shrugged it off and did what he had to
do.
He opened the period with a nice basket, and
nailed both of his free throws late in the extra minutes to
lead T.A. Dugger to a 34-31 victory.
"That killed me," said Taylor, "I just had to
come back and keep playing. I just tried to get out there
and make up for it to help my team win."
Taylor was a big key in the win for the Junior
Cyclones, as he led the squad with eleven.
"He played good," said TAD coach James Jacobs,
"He's a scorer and he's been missing easy shots, but I think
he's got his head on straight. We really needed a big game
out of him and we got it, he might've missed those two foul
shots down there at the end, but overall he helped us big
time and I'm proud of him."
It was a game of good execution from both squads,
with Happy Valley bouncing back from a five-point deficit
in the fourth quarter to even the game.
The Junior Warriors had strong shooting from
Larry Creed and Daniel Shankle throughout the contest, over-countering
Travis Bishop and Bo Carter from TAD.
But in the end it was the battle of the boards
that made the final impression on the solid outing.
After leading 10-5 going into the second quarter,
the Warriors didn't respond offensively, giving up the boards
that eventually decided the contest.
"We lost our aggressiveness in the second quarter
and let them get too many offensive rebounds," said Happy
Valley coach Rik Anderson. "I think that was really the key
to the game for us. You have to really go after the boards
to be affective, and I don't think we did a really good job
in that area."
"I think the teams were pretty evenly matched,"
said Jacobs, "Happy Valley and Coach Anderson does a great
job with his kids and they always do. Our kids know their
kids and its fun to play them and to come over here and get
a win is fantastic. The kids are happy, and I'm happy."
"We just had to stay out there and play hard,"
Taylor said. "We missed some easy shots. We were getting offensive
rebounds and the refs weren't really going our way, but that's
something you have to deal with and play hard through."
Said Anderson: "I thought we handled situations
very well. We battled back there and I was proud of the effort.
We just kinda folded the tent; but we stayed after it and
made some turnovers and big buckets."
"It was a good effort on our part," he said.
"You always want to win, you just gotta look at it and come
back tomorrow and get ready."
Happy Valley hosts Cloudland tomorrow, while
T.A. Dugger faces Hampton on the road this Friday. Game time
for the latter is 2:00.
T.A. Dugger (7th) 26
Happy Valley 22
The Junior Cyclones bounced out to a win earlier
in the evening with a 26-22 clash over Happy Valley in the
seventh grade contest.
Ryan Witten's squad led by eight after the first
half, but fell aside as the Junior Warriors bounced back into
the contest by tying it in the fourth quarter.
However, some big buckets from Jake Peters, Ryan
Green, and Jordan Coleman was simply too much for Happy Valley,
as the orange and white took a victory.
Jesse Richardson led Happy Valley with six points,
while T.A. Dugger's Green led all players with eight.
