Gary Corsair • Clay County Progress Slade Crouch, No. 2, glides past Cherokee defenders to tally 2 for Hayesville on a reverse layup.
By Gary Corsair
Sports Writer
Slade Crouch totaled 18 points and 13 rebounds and E.J. Abrams and Michael Colandrea played with intensity off the bench, but turnovers doomed Hayesville to a 70-52 boys basketball loss at Cherokee on Tuesday.
“We didn’t take care of the ball well enough. It’s a tough place to win,” Hayesville Coach Mike Cottrell remarked.
The Braves flaunted their home court advantage by making 11 3-pointers and applying full-court pressure defense that contributed to 26 Hayesville turnovers, more than twice as many errors at Cherokee committed.
Five of those Yellow Jacket turnovers came as Cherokee grabbed a 6-0 lead during the first three minutes of the game.
The Braves led 8-0 when Hayesville got on the scoreboard when Brady Reynolds canned a 3-point bucket on a pass from Brendan Lynch, an act that made Cherokee respond with a barrage of 3 consecutive bombs for baskets from behind the arch.
The Yellow Jackets answered with triples by Lynch and Abrams, but Cherokee closed out the quarter with 5 unanswered points for a 22-9 lead and never looked back.
The hosts opened the second quarter with back-to-back steals as Hayesville struggled to get the ball up court, then added 3 long balls in a row to increase the lead to 32-12. Hayesville never got within 18 after that.
Down 42-19 at the half, Cottrell started Abrams and Colandrea. Both responded admirably with determined hustle at both ends.
The rest of the starters — Crouch, Jackson Sellers and Landon Trout also showed intensity, especially on the defensive end.
Hayesville matched Cherokee point-for-point for about 4 minutes, but the Braves canned 3 treys as the quarter wound down.
In the fourth, Hayesville closed the gap to 65-47 when Crouch beautifully fed Colandrea with 3:02 remaining, but the Jackets would get no closer.
“We need to get a little stronger mentally to handle runs made by the other team,” Cottrell said. “We are still learning with every experience. I think this team will accept the challenge.”
Colandrea finished fourth 4 points on 2-of-3 shooting.
Crouch was Hayesville’s only double-digit scorer. Reynolds added 9 points and three rebounds. Lynch totaled 6 points and four rebounds. Trout had 5 points and two boards. Sellers finished with six rebounds, 2 points, two steals and two assists. Riley Rogers had three assists, 2 points and two rebounds. Abrams added 3 points and two rebounds. Brady Jones had 3 points. Cooper Matheson contributed two rebounds.
Hayesville (2-3 overall, 1-1 conference) hosted Towns County on Friday. See next week’s Progress for details.