Neal Wachob • Clay County Progress Hayesville point guard Kabe Shaheen, No. 3, slithers through a trap set by Andrews.
By Gary Corsair
Sports Writer
Andrews made threes, Hayesville didn’t.
That was the story when the Wildcats whacked the Yellow Jackets, 58-45, in Smoky Mountain Conference varsity boys basketball play Friday.
Nineteen percent three-point shooting, 5-of-26, wasn’t the only bugaboo for Hayesville, which fell to 7-8 overall after its third consecutive double-digit loss. The Yellow Jackets also struggled from the field, 12-of-35, 34 percent, and the free throw line, 6-of-11, 54 percent.
On a positive note, the Jackets snared 16 offensive boards and out rebounded their guests 43-35. Five of those rebounds resulted in put backs that produced 13 points.
Damien Soto and Jackson Sellers were the foremost miss collectors. Soto had 12 boards, Sellers 10.
Hayesville’s big bodies also headed the scoring brigade. Soto – the only Jacket to make more shots than he missed, minimum three attempts – tallied 16 points on 6-of-8 field goal firing. Sellers, who contributed 10 points, also rejected a shot and drew a charging foul.
Soto promptly asserted himself after entering the game with Andrews leading 14-12 with 1:51 left in the first quarter. Soto’s old-fashioned three-point play when he was hacked on an offensive board gave Hayesville a 15-14 lead.
Andrews promptly regained the lead, but Soto struck again on a slick spin move to give Hayesville a 17-16 advantage after one quarter.
The Soto show continued when Micah Moss found his center for a bucket to begin the second.
Andrews answered with a game-tying three. The Wildcats then seized the lead with a pair of long balls while Hayesville suffered through a 3:24 scoreless drought.
Hayesville regrouped after a turnover prompted Coach Mike Cottrell to call for a timeout.
The sideline chat paid immediate dividends. E.J. Abrams dropped a pair of free ones, Sellers busted a three from the top of the key and then fed Soto, who tickled the twine with a scoop shot that gave Hayesville a 26-25 lead.
Once again, Andrews responded. The Wildcats notched three on a bucket-and-foul to go up, then stole the ball and took it to the bank with a layup for a 30-26 halftime advantage.
The Jackets never saw daylight again.
Andrews nailed three treys in the first four minutes of the second half as Hayesville struggled to connect. The lead was double digits by the time Seller grabbed a miss, scored, was fouled and hit a free throw.
Poor shooting in the third – 2-of-8 from the field and 0-of-4 from distance — put the Jackets in a hole they couldn’t climb out of. Hayesville was silent during the last 3:39 of the period. Andrews outscored their hosts 19-5 during the stanza for a 49-31 hold.
Soto went wild in the fourth quarter, fighting for six rebounds and hitting 3-of-4 shots for 7 points.
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Brady Reynolds, two buckets and three rebounds; Sellers, two boards and an assist; Abrams, two points, a rebound and a steal; Kabe Shaheen, a point, an assist, a board and a steal and Moss, a blocked shot and a board, also contributed statistically.
Hayesville played with heart in the fourth, but 1-of-13 three-point shooting and a few sessions of cat-and-mouse by the Wildcats allowed Andrews to remain op top by double-digits.
The Jackets hoped for better results at Murphy on Tuesday and when Swain County visits on Friday.
Andrews 58, Hayesville 45
Score by quarters
Hayesville: 17 - 26 - 31 - 45
Andrews: 16 - 30 - 49 - 58
Hayesville leaders
Scoring: Soto, 16; Abrams, 8; J. Sellers, 8, and Reynolds, 7.
Rebounds: Soto, 12; Sellers, 10 and Reynolds, six.
Assists: Shaheen, three and J. Sellers, two.
Robbinsville 72, Hayesville 48
Robbinsville was without two starters, but the Black Knights had more than enough firepower to cruise past visiting Hayesville.
Jackson Sellers led the Yellow Jackets by taking three charges and totaling 9 points and seven rebounds.
Reynolds fired in 16 points and snared four rebounds. Shaheen got big for five boards and scored 2 points. Brendan Lynch tallied four markers and Abrams added three. Soto and Trout had 2 points apiece.
Dane Knott was simply too much for Hayesville. He canned seven three-pointers and went for 23.