By Gary Corsair
Sports Writer
After struggling for two months, shots are falling, turnovers are down and Hayesville varsity boys basketball players are looking like contenders, not occasionally, but every night, from start to finish.
The new-and-improved Yellow Jackets revealed their new identity with three impressive showings last week – a heartrending overtime loss to Andrews, a rousing and convincing upset of Murphy, and bonafide blowout of Blue Ridge Early College.
“Our focus was to play a few good games in a row,” Hayesville Coach Mike Cottrell said. “We haven’t been able to do that and they’re doing that, so maybe they’re turning the corner. We’ll see. I’m pleased with their effort.”
The best week of the season came just in time. Hayesville (6-9 overall, 2-2 Smoky Mountain Conference) faced visiting conference foes Swain on Tuesday and Cherokee on Friday. Blue Ridge Early College hosted the Jackets on Wednesday.
Hayesville 62, Murphy 54
The gym was rocking and the tension was palatable Friday night when Cottrell called timeout with his team leading, 54-52, with 1:48 remaining.
The Hayesville faithful had to be at least a little concerned. After all, the Yellow Jackets led by 15 just five minutes earlier. Now, it was a one-basket game.
The Yellow Jackets had the ball, but Murphy had the momentum.
That changed when Hayesville’s Cooper Matheson intercepted two passes in :30 and sprinted down-court to convert the turnovers into four points that pushed the score to 60-52.
The Yellow Jackets sealed the deal with two key defensive rebounds by Jackson Sellers, press breaking by Slade Crouch, Matheson and Sellers and three free throws by Landon Trout, who also won a jump ball with :47.9 remaining.
“That was a really good test for us on the road,” Cottrell remarked. “They tried to come back and we tried to let them back in it but I thought we made some plays that we haven’t been making in those situations.”
A team full of stars stepped up during this barn burner in which Hayesville drilled 60 percent (15-of-25) from the field and 75 percent from the line (12-of-18) while committing an acceptable 11 turnovers.
Those numbers counteracted a sizable rebound discrepancy. The much taller Bulldogs had 38 rebounds compared to 24 by Hayesville.
Brady Reynolds was the shooting star early on, scoring 8 of Hayesville’s first 12 points. He drilled all six field goal tries and finished with a team-leading 22 points.
Every Yellow Jacket contributed to the thrilling win.
Sellers did a yeoman’s job in the paint. Action Jackson scored 11 points by shooting 3-of-4 from the floor and 5-of-7 at the charity stripe, corralled 10 rebounds, took three charges and played the primary role in holding Murphy’s twin towers Cale Harger (6-foot-4) and Abram Twiggs (6-foot-5) under their scoring averages. The Bulldog bigs combined for 17 points, well under their combined average of 23.1.
Landon Trout also had a hand in limiting Murphy’s effectiveness inside. So did E.J. Abrams.
Offensively, Crouch directed the show and repeatedly made big plays. He was at his best when Murphy pulled within six in the third quarter.
First, Crouch dropped a 3-point bomb on a kick-out pass from Sellers. Hayesville 33-24. Two minutes later, The Blade cashed in a pass from Reynolds. 38-28. A minute later, he struck again, knocking down a trey on a pass from Matheson to create a hole (41-30) too deep for Murphy to climb out of.
The game was a classic barn burner from the opening tip.
A nip-and-tuck first quarter ended in an 18-all tie, but Hayesville broke the contest open early in the second quarter with back-to-back steals by Reynolds. He turned his first theft into an old-fashioned three-point play on a fast break layup to put Hayesville up 21-18. Moments later, Reynolds struck again, Bogarting a pass at the top of the key and racing for a layup. Hayesville 23-18.
A minute later, after a Murphy long ball, Reynolds took a feed from Sellers and cashed in a floater, 25-21.
Incredibly, Hayesville came up with another steal a blink later. Brendan Lynch was the thief this time and Crouch the exclamation point on a 3-pointer that elevated the Jackets to a 28-21 lead just before halftime.
Crouch finished with 21 points, four 3-pointers, three rebounds and three assists.
In the second half, Matheson exploded with four steals (he finished with five), four rebounds and two assists. He also had 4 points.
Trout totaled 3 points and three boards. Lynch had two caroms. Abrams scored a point.
Andrews 78, Hayesville 72 (OT)
It’s amazing the Yellow Jackets were in contention at the end considering that Andrews shot 20 more free throws (32 to 12).
Still, the Yellow Jackets had the Wildcats (13-4 overall, 3-1 Smoky Mountain Conference) by the tail late in the fourth quarter.
Unfortunately, the hosts couldn’t buy a bucket at the end of regulation and Andrews prevailed in overtime.
“We did somethings down the stretch that maybe cost us the game but I felt like we didn’t get to the line enough. So that hurt us a little bit because we outscored them everywhere else. It was a good lesson for us to become a little more physical and demand fouls,” Cottrell said.
The rivals were neck-and-neck for three quarters until Hayesville opened the final period in passing gear, pushing a 1-point lead to 8 on baskets by Abrams and Sellers and a 3-pointer by Reynolds during the opening 2:30.
Andrews responded with a 3-ball, but Crouch drained a jump shot to give Hayesville a seemingly safe 60-53 stake with 5:00 left.
Things promptly got hairy.
Andrews turned three Hayesville errors into 7 points to tie the game at 60 with 3:36 on the clock.
Free throws by Reynolds reclaimed the lead and Crouch’s fall-away after faking a defender out of his sneakers gave the Black-and-Gold a 64-60 advantage with 2:33 remaining.
Andrews came back again, tying the score at 64 after Hayesville missed two open shots.
Regulation ended with Andrews lofting a desperation three from the corner over textbook defense by Sellers and Reynolds.
Hayesville continued to have trouble putting the ball in the hole during the bonus period, but led 69-67 at the 2:30 mark when Sellers delivered the rock to Matheson for a 3-pointer from the corner.
Lynch then pressured Andrews into a travel, but the Jackets missed two shots that should have fallen and committed a turnover to help the Wildcats go up 73-67.
Crouch busted an NBA trey from way above the key to cut the lead to 73-70 with :47 left to play. Twenty seconds later, Crouch triple pump faked Andrews into fouling him beyond the arch. Two of the three freebies found the bottom of the net, but that was Hayesville’s last hurrah. Andrews put the game on ice with four free throws.
Hayesville countered the free throw discrepancy by torching the nets with 20-of-42 shooting from the field and 8-of-19 from beyond the arch.
Second-chance points were also a factor. Hayesville scored 12 points on offensive rebounds in the second half.
Sellers was superb with 14 points on 6-of-9 shooting, 13 rebounds, three assists and lock down defense on Andrews’ 6-foot-6 center Braxton Rickett.
Crouch hit the bullseye on 6-of-12 from the field for 17 points to go with four rebounds, three assists and two steals.
Reynolds connected on 5-of-9 from behind the arch to finish with 17 points and three assists.
Lynch went for 8 points on 3-of-4 shooting and cleared six boards. Abrams racked up 8 points with 4-of-6 firing. Matheson had 6 points on 2-of-3 long distance bombing.
Hayesville 83, Blue Ridge EC 25
The Yellow Jackets handed out 19 assists, busted 16 3-pointers, collected 11 boards and committed just five errors as they decimated the Bobcats from Cashiers.
Everyone played for Hayesville, which improved to six wins, nine losses with its third victory in its last four games.
“It was a good shooting night for us, so some good things happened,” Cottrell said.
Hayesville’s coach emptied the bench early as the boys in black and golf rolled to a 25-12 first-quarter lead and 47-21 halftime advantage.
The second half was even more lopsided. Blue Ridge Early College (2 wins, 11 loses) scored just 2 points in the third and 2 more in the fourth on the way to finishing with 24 turnovers.
The Yellow Jackets, on the other hand, only made five errors.
Reynolds scored 6 of Hayesville’s first 10 points, nailed three treys, handed out three assists and finished with a team-high 17 points.
Riley Rogers was the top long-range gunner, scoring 16 points on four 3-pointers.
Brady Jones bucketed three triples and racked up 13 points. Matheson also made three 3-pointers for nine points in addition to distributing four assists. Lynch tallied 7 points and three assists.
Abrams scored 6 points, Sellers 6, Crouch 4, Chandler 3.
Michael Colandrea had three assists and 2 points. Trout gathered four offensive rebounds.