BASK: Johnson sparks Tigers past Lovelady
RUSK -- Like a sleeping giant, the Tenaha Tigers awoke from a slumber during the second period of Thursday night's Class 1A Division I Area contest here in Eagle Coliseum. And this Tiger team was not in a good mood when it woke up.
The Tigers trailed Lovelady 15-8 at the end of the first quarter and were down 19-8 with 6:35 left in the half. That's when a foul discrepancy against Tiger senior forward was cleared up and he re-entered the contest with one foul instead of two.
Immediately Johnson and his teammates responded by running off eight straight points in a span of 1:02 and they finished the quarter by outscoring the Lions 23-12 to force a tie at the half and Tenaha went on to roll in the second half to an impressive 67-50 win over Lovelady.
Tenaha (22-5) will now await the winner of Friday night's Area matchup between West Sabine and LaPoynor, which will be played at Carthage High School at 7:30 p.m. The Tigers will take on the survivor in the Class 1A Region III Quarterfinal round on Monday night at a site yet to be determined. The winner of that game will earn the right to move on to the Class 1A Division I Region III Tournament to be played next weekend.
But first things first.
Lovelady (18-11) came to play in this matchup and was giving the Tigers fits until the early moments of the second quarter. And even though Tenaha forged a 31-31 at the half, the Lions wouldn't go quietly.
"I knew they were going to give us trouble; they have a lot of talent on that team," said Tenaha Head Coach Todd Bodden after the contest. "Sometimes we're slow to get started and we had that trouble tonight. I told the kids after the game that no matter who we play, they're in the playoffs because they're good and we'd better be ready to play."
Jamon Moore paced the Tenaha attack, scoring 19 points. Victor Johnson added 16 points, Reginald Davis and Octavius Griffith both knocked down nine, Jacobi Steadman threw in five, Porter Gipson managed four and Jakendrick Cooper popped in three points.
The Lions used a balanced attack - as Bodden knew they would - as 10 different players scored in the contest. Many times during the game Lovelady Head Coach Jon Lowery replaced all five players on the floor. This kept fresh legs and fresh shooting arms running at the Tigers.
"I scouted them pretty well, so I knew they'd platoon us," Bodden explained. "I tried to make adjustments selectively against them to keep fresh legs on the court in certain situations for us, and it seemed to work for the most part. It really turned into a chess match at times."
Christian Harris paced the Lions, scoring 12 points, while Taylor Therwhanger added seven and Jordan Driskell added six. Tre Sherman and Jalin Boutte each pitched in four points.
"Tenaha has a great team," Lowery said after the game. "They just have so much athletic ability and they kept coming at us. Our guys tried to run with them and we just can't do that. They're tough."
After fighting to a 31-31 tie at the half, Johnson led the Tiger charge in the third quarter as THS outscored Lovelady 12-1 in the first 3:16 of the quarter. Johnson hit a pair of second-change buckets in the paint, while Cooper canned a three-pointer to help the run.
Tenaha then slowed the pace of the contest down, spreading the ball in a half-court offense to try to use the clock and make the Lions chase the quicker Tiger players.
"I knew we had a quickness advantage and so I decided to slow the game down and make them chase us," Bodden stated. "And it worked pretty well for us the rest of the way."
The Tigers, who hit 10-of-16 field goals in the second quarter, converted 8-of-15 in the third and led 50-38 heading into the final eight minutes.
Tenaha increased its lead to 59-41 with 3:06 remaining and then coasted to the victory from there.
STATS AT A GLANCE
Scoring by Quarters
Tenaha 08 23 19 17 = 67
Lovelady 15 16 07 12 = 50
Individual Scorers: Tenaha - Jamon Moore 19; Victor Johnson 16; Reginald Davis 9; Octavius Griffith 9; Jacobi Steadman 5; Porter Gipson 4; Jakendrick Cooper 3. Lovelady - Christian Harris 12; Taylor Therwhanger 7; Matt Stenstadvold 7; Jordan Driskell 6; Tre Sherman 4; Trent Sulewski 4; Jalin Boutte 4; Justin Driskell 3; Stephen Solomon 2; Paul Stenstadvold.
Turnovers: Tenaha 14; Lovelady 26.
Records: Tenaha 22-5; Lovelady 18-11.
Up Next: Tenaha will play the winner of Friday's Area contest between West Sabine and LaPoynor, which will be played in Carthage at 7:30 p.m. The Regional Quarterfinal game will be played Monday night at a site/time yet to be determined.