Sports

 

Local High School Basketball Pages

Tigers fall to Falcons in semis

By LARRY OLIVER
In a battle between two ranked teams at the Alexandria Sectional on Friday night, one might expect it to be a game of halves or spurts, and that was the case as No. 7-ranked Alexandria jumped out early using their speed and athleticism. In the second half however, it was No. 6-ranked Winchester using their size to control the boards and score easy baskets as they eventually pulled away to a 65-52 victory in the sectional semifinals.
Alexandria led by 10 points at four different times in the second period. Each time they had an opportunity to extend that lead, they managed to leave the door open by missing a layup after a steal, or not connecting on free throws.
“It started to get away from us at the end of the second quarter and the start of the third,” said Tiger Coach Garth Cone. “Hand-checking took us out of some things and we didn’t handle it very well. We began trying to create things off the bounce instead of creating things off the screen.”
“Give Chip’s kids credit, they played hard and didn’t push the panic button when they were down 10. They did a nice job of closing things up on us and we tried to force it, rather than bringing it back out and resetting.”
Cone did say that he thought the Tigers a did nice job defensively in the first half holding the No. 6-ranked Golden Falcons to just 29 points.
“That’s the happiest I have been at halftime in probably 15 years,” said Winchester Coach Chip Mehaffey. “Truthfully, I couldn’t believe the way we played in the first half, as poorly as we executed our game plan that we were only down three points.”
“We did a poor job executing early in the game because we kept helping defensively, which was leaving holes,” said Mehaffey. “Our game plan was simple defensively. We have so much respect for Zach (Yeagy), that we were going to faceguard him and press him full court, and not allow him to be the deciding factor and win the game.”
By not taking advantage of the opportunities during the second quarter to build on the double digit lead, Alex left the door open for Winchester and they walked right through it.
“It took us a while to figure out the puzzle, but I believe we finally did towards the end of the second quarter and we were able to slow Alex offensively,” said Mehaffey.
With the tide changing in the third quarter, Neal Beshears, a 6-foot-8 senior, finished the period with a steal and a thunderous dunk.
“That was great to see, fun to watch, but I think the momentum had already swung in our direction to be honest,” said Mehaffey.
“The biggest adjustment Winchester made,” said Cone, “was utilizing Miller in the middle. We didn’t have an answer for him. We didn’t handle him very well.”
Winchester was led by their twin towers. Beshears and Miller, both of which are 6-foot-8, combined to score 49 points, 29 for Beshears and 20 for Miller. Beshears also had 12 rebounds, while Miller grabbed 7.
Junior Chance Morphew led the Tigers again with 17 points, while Zach Yeagy scored 14 and Matt Johnson added 8. Morphew also led the Alexandria in rebounding with 8, while Zach Yeagy had a team high 4 assists.
“The kids have had a great year and I couldn’t complain about their effort tonight,” said Cone as his Tigers finished the season 17-6 and are Co-CIC Champions. “We played hard and left it all on the floor.”
Complete Alexandria scoring was Morphew-17, Z. Yeagy-14, Johnson-8, Hodges-6, B. Yeagy-5 and Breese-2.
Scoring for Winchester was Beshears-29, Miller-20, Deboy-7, Woodbury-6 and Detweiler-3