Hiwassee Dam – The Eagles varsity basketball team took an early lead over Copper Basin, Tenn., and never looked back Friday night.
After Hiwassee Dam exploded for 27 points in the first quarter and 44 points by halftime, they built themselves a big lead that the Cougars could not surmount.
The Eagles started the game with a 9-2 run, when the Cougars called their first timeout. By the time the Cougars took another timeout only six minutes into the game, Hiwassee Dam led 22-8.
The Eagles had another productive quarter in the second, as they added on 17 more points to take a 44-28 lead into halftime.
They kept piling on the points out of halftime with 21 more points in the their quarter. Coming out of halftime, they easily added onto their lead and continued to grow it through tight defense and hard-fought points in the paint.
The third quarter ended with a buzzer beater three-point shot from Jimmy Kelly.
In the fourth quarter, Basin began ago close the gap. They went on a run to bring the game within 10 points, but the Eagles continued to do what the had been doing all game and put more points on the board.
The Eagles fought off a late comeback attempt by Basin to secure their second straight win of the season and move to 2-0.
Aidan Bennett led the scoring with 28 points Friday night. Three other Eagles were also in double-digit points as Jonah Dockery had 14, Abel Penland had 11 and Kelly 10.
After the game, Eagles head coach Mark Raper said the team played “up and down.”
“When we’re up, we’re really really good and when we’re down, they got a little crazy on us. When you have a rivalry game like this, a lot of these kids are first cousins on both teams, it gets a little intense,” Raper said.
“We had them downed, we didn’t finish it off and you gotta give Copper Basin credit because they kept playing and they got it back from 20 to 12. I’m happy with the effort, I’m not happy with the execution. If we get our execution down, we’ll be OK.”
Raper added that their lack of varsity experience showed down the stretch. They will work on doing what they do even better to prepare for upcoming games.
Lady Eagles
The Lady Eagles lost a tough game Friday night, falling to the Lady Cougars 56-50 after Basin came back in the fourth quarter to win the game.
The game was close throughout. They were back and forth in the first quarter, but Hiwassee Dam (1-1) led 14-13.
In the second quarter, the Lady Eagles began to pull away. In another back-and-forth quarter, Hiwassee Dam had multiple steals, while Sky Taylor made a layup as time expired to give the Lady Eagles a 30-22 lead at halftime.
Hiwassee Dam maintained their lead in the third quarter through well-orchestrated plays and solid passing. Heading into the fourth quarter, the Lady Eagles led 40-34.
Three minutes into the fourth quarter, Basin began closing the gap. With 5:03 left in the game, the Lady Eagles took a timeout with a three-point lead.
One minute later, Basin took the lead. The Lady Cougars then made multiple steals to grow their lead to 49-42. They used turnovers to their advantage and took over the game in the final minutes.
The Lady Eagles made shots to put points on the board and called timeouts to stop the clock, but it was not enough and Basin won 56-50.
After the game, Lady Eagles head coach David Payne said his team played sloppy Friday night.
“Kudos to [Copper Basin], they pressured us and got us panicked early and we weren’t able to get into any kind of flow and we just played very sloppy,” Payne said.
“We didn’t make some shots early that could have gotten our momentum heading in the right direction. If you’re missing easy shots and then you’re playing sloppy, it’s not going to be good.”
In the timeouts in the final minutes of the game, Payne’s message to the team was that the game wasn’t over yet. He added that it’s important how you react to losses, and they will come back and word hard to correct the things they didn’t do well.
The Eagles’ next game is Tuesday, when they host Swain. The Lady Eagles will tip-off at 6 p.m., while the boys varsity team will start at 7:30 p.m. or about 10 minutes following the conclusion of the girls game.