Gary Corsair • Clay County Progress Hayesville's Asher Brown, No. 2, earns the amazement of teammate Slade Crouch, No. 3, as Brown lofts a floater over a Towns County defender.
By Gary Corsair
Sports Writer
Hayesville’s boys put all — or at least most — of the pieces together with a thrilling win over Towns County in the Battle of the State Basketball Tournament, but losses on Friday and Saturday revealed that the big picture remains incomplete.
Here’s a summary of Hayesville’s three games:
Hayesville 60, Towns County 58
The Yellow Jackets trailed 30-19, pulled ahead with a superb third quarter, and fell behind again, 45-44 in the fourth, but kept their composure in the waning seconds.
A Seth Crouch free throw with :39 left on the clock put Hayesville up 58-56, a win seemed assured when Luke Lee rebounded a Towns County miss at :21.5 and the Indians fouled. Unfortunately, both of the resulting free throws rimmed out, Towns County rebounded and Zane Floyd thundered into the lane and tied the score.
With just :06 remaining, Hayesville faced the daunting task of traversing the length of the court and scoring to avoid overtime.
Yellow Jacket Asher Brown, chosen to make that happen, was dribbling up court when he was fouled to the dismay of Towns County Coach Brian Hunnicutt, who had just instructed his players not to send Hayesville to the line. With :03 remaining, Brown sealed the deal by canning both free throws. A missed three by Floyd at the buzzer closed the book on Hayesville’s seventh win in 10 games.
Brown was definitely the wrong man to foul — he nailed all six of his shots from the charity stripe. The senior spark plug totaled 11 points and distributed six assists.
The main beneficiary of Brown’s sharing was Jacob McClure who scorched the nets with five three-pointers on just seven attempts and finished with 17 points and three rebounds. McClure was named to the All-Tournament Team.
Hayesville’s motion offense produced high-percentage shots all night long. All five Yellow Jacket starters shot more than 50 percent. Hayesville stroked 73 percent from the field, 11-of-15, from the field and 45 percent from three-point land, 9-of-20.
Luke Lee also sizzled, hitting his last four shots and 4-of-4 from the field for 14 markers. He also cleared a game-high seven rebounds and made two steals.
Seth Crouch may have been the most active Yellow Jacket, scoring 10 points with an assortment of twisting drives and silky jump shots, hitting 3-of-5 from the field, 1-of-2 threes, clearing six rebounds and handing out four assists.
Isaac Chandler was another busybody with a hot hand. Hayesville’s workaholic center scored 8 points and made both field goal attempts and had a pair of assists.
Towns County led 16-11 after one quarter and 31-26 at the half.
Hayesville trimmed the spread to 35-34 as McClure swished a three off a feed from Lee, Chandler canned a turnaround jumper and Brown fed Crouch for a bucket. The Jackets secured the lead when Lee slipped a sweet bounce pass to Chandler, who was fouled going to the hole. Chandler sank both freebies to give Hayesville a 36-35 lead.
Hayesville closed out the quarter with a McClure trey fouled by a McClure steal that produced a fast break layup by Lee. Hayesville 44, Towns County 41 at the end of three.
Three Hayesville turnovers during a span of :59 helped Towns County regain the lead, 45-44. Chandler answered with a bucket on a bounce pass assist from Brown with 6:12 remaining, and Towns County never led again.
The Indians sure came close though. Lee kept the hosts at bay with a corner jumper at 4:30, a trey at 2:56, a steal :12 later and another bucket at 2:10 that extended the lead to 56-51.
Rabun County 79, Hayesville 55
The Yellow Jackets didn’t shoot nearly as well Friday.
Then again, they shot well enough to win, at least from the floor. Hayesville made 10-of-21 from the field and 10-of-13 free throws, but only 7-of-24 from the three-point range.
Interior defense was Hayesville’s undoing. Rabun County scored 36 points in the paint.
The Yellow Jackets only led once, when McClure made the first shot of the game.
Crouch led a balanced attack with 5-of-10 shooting, 13 points and five rebounds.
Chandler tallied 12 points on 1-of-2 from the field, 1-of-1 from distance and 5-of-5 from the charity stripe. He also had three rebounds, two blocked shots and two assists.
McClure added 12 points on four treys and grabbed three boards.
Lee had 8 points, five caroms, four assists and a pair of steals. Brown bucketed three of his last four shots, grabbed three boards, made two steals and scored 8.
Peyton McGaha hit his only shot and grabbed a rebound in limited playing time.
Murphy 60, Hayesville 47
Again, the Yellow Jackets only led once, when McClure scored the first points of the game on a three-pointer.
Unfortuantely, Hayesville missed its next nine attempts from behind the arch. By the time McClure tripled again midway through the second quarter, Murphy, 7-3, led 24-18 and was in the midst of a 10-2 scoring run spearheaded by Xander Wachacha, a transfer from Robbinsville.
The Yellow Jackets trailed 34-20 at the intermission and played catch-up the entire second half but trailed by 20-plus during most of the final two quarters.
Highlights of the second half included Isaac Chandler making 8-of-8 free throws and scoring 16 points after not attempting a shot during a first half in which he played limited minutes due to early foul trouble. Another bright spot was Riley Rogers in mop-up time. Rogers found the bottom of the net on back-to-back three-point shots in the final :30.
Hayesville shot a respectable 40 percent from the field and only committed nine turnovers, but the Yellow Jackets only made 7-of-28 long balls, 25 percent, and were out rebounded 34-20.
The Yellow Jackets travel to Robbinsville on Friday.