Avery Journal Covers....Buc Basketball

Belmont Blasts the Bucs

On Thursday night, the ETSU Bucs looked to stop the Belmont winning streak inside the Memorial Center. However, the Bruins of Belmont raced out to a 20 point halftime lead, and never looked back as they cruised to their ninth consecutive victory in Johnson City. Shane Dansby had 28 points, and two other Bruins scored in double figures in the 87-75 victory.
“You can’t spot them 20 points and expect to come back and win,” ETSU coach Murray Bartow said. “It’s a tough loss. Obviously, there were several keys in the game, but our inability to make shots was huge. That really killed us in the first half. I thought the effort was great in the second half, but we were just too far behind.”
The Bruins jumped out to a 17-4 lead as they couldn’t miss, and the Bucs could not buy a bucket. ETSU would close the gap to 10 before the Bruins would go on another offensive run to take a 47-27 lead at the half.
The second half was much of the same as Belmont continues their impressive offensive performance. The Bucs would cut the lead to 11 on a Courtney Pigram 3-pointer, but Belmont would counter with a four 3-pointers, and make it a 21 point game..
ETSU was led by Courtney Pigram’s 16 points, and Kevin Tiggs added 14 points. Mike Smith and Travis Strong both added 13 points. The Bucs shot 39% from the floor, and just 28% from behind the 3-point line. Belmont shot 53% from the floor, and an impressive 41% from behind the arc.
“Belmont’s a really good team and they are well coached,” Bartow said. “We just haven’t had much success against them.
The Bruins victory was the third straight victory during the regular season in the Memorial Center. The other victories came in the Atlantic Sun Conference Tournament where they have captured two straight A-Sun titles.
Despite the loss, Coach Bartow knows that his Bucs still have something to play for.
“It’s disappointing because our hopes for a regular season championship are over, but we still have a lot to play for,” Bartow said. “We can still win 20 games and the truth is any team in our league needs three wins in our tournament to make the NCAA Tournament.”

Buccaneers Survive Scare Against Lipscomb

On Saturday, the East Tennessee State Bucs looked to snap a two game losing streak in the A-Sun against a strong Lipscomb team. The Bucs nearly squandered a 15 point first half lead, but hung on for the 81-78 victory.
“I thought it was a good bounce back win,” ETSU head coach Murry Bartow said. “We had a lot of energy in practice yesterday, and I was really glad to see our guys come out like that. They (Lipscomb) made a great run at us in the middle of the game. They are a hard nosed team, and they’re hard to play, so this was a good win for us. It wasn’t always pretty for us at the end, but we made our free throws.”
The Bucs, who saw their regular season conference title hopes dashed on Thursday, rebounded quickly against the Bison. ETSU led by as many as 15 in the early parts of the first half. Neither team could buy a basket as both shot in the 20 percent range. The bison would close the lead to six before the half.
The Bison’s second half performance was much better then the first, and it nearly cost the Bucs the game. Lipscomb opened the half on a 14-4 run that saw them take a 45-41 lead. However, the Bucs could not be denied as the lead was swapped 12 times. The Bucs were forced to the foul line in the last two minutes to seal the victory. The Bison did have a shot to tie the game to force overtime, but could not get a shot off.
The Bucs were led by Kenyona Swader finished with 18 points and 10 rebounds, while Andrew Reed had 23 points and nine rebounds. Micah Williams finshied with six rebounds and 14 points while only playing in 17 minutes. The Bucs shot 48 percent from the floor, but were out-rebounded 48-42.

Conference Championship on the Line Friday Night!

With its 52-48 win in Burnsville Tuesday night, the Avery Lady Vikings have set themselves up with an opportunity to play for a share of the regular season Western Highlands Conference championship tomorrow night when the league-leading Mitchell Lady Mountaineers roll into Viking Gym.

Avery is 17-6 on the season and will look on Senior Night to give head coach Missy Lyons her first victory over the rivals from Ledger. Mitchell is undefeated in conference play, with Avery's lone loss coming in a 54-45 loss on the road at the hands of the Lady Mountaineers back on January 22nd. In that game no Avery player reached double-figures in the scoring column, as Hayley Pyatte led the Lady Vikings with nine points. The Vikings shot only 36% from the field and committed 22 turnovers.

It will be the final regular season home game for six Lady Vikings players who have been a part of the winningest classes of players in Avery women's basketball school history. Tipoff is scheduled around 6 p.m.

From The Student Section... Don't Forget Valentine's Edition

Good Morning! I hope everyone had an outstanding weekend, and everyone is staying warm. It is cold outside, but there are some excellent sports going on this week. Here is a quick look at some things going on:

• The Lady 'Landers claimed their conference title and both Highlander teams will enter tournaments at the end of the week. They end the regular season with Unicoi tonight, and will travel to Chuckey-Doak tomorrow. The conference tournaments are at Chuckey-Doak (I think I am not postive, but will let you know for sure later this week) this weekend.


• Be sure to check the print edition of the Avery Journal-Times on Wednesday for a recaps of the Cloudland clashes with rivals Hampton and Unaka, as well as Jamie's recaps for Avery's busy week.


• The Clash of the National Champions will be the first week of the college football season. Appalachian State will travel to Baton Rouge for a showdown with the LSU Tigers. The game will take place of one that was scheduled for 2009. Both teams are defending national champs in their respective division.


• The Carolina-Duke game was great, except if your a Tar Heel fan. Cameron will be rocking for the rematch later in the season, especially if the ACC regular season crown is on the line.


• Speaking of Carolina, they had their hands full with Clemson last night. It went into 2 OTs before the Tar Heels took the victory. Their first matchup was just as close. Can you imagine if these two meet in the ACC tournament?


• Racing has arrived!! The Shootout Saturday night was a very good race, and showed that the COT may be what it is suppose to be, a good racecar. The Duels are on Thursday and the 50th Daytona 500 is on Sunday afternoon.


• Speaking of Daytona, the clash between Kurt Busch and Tony Stewart stole the headlines from the actual racing. The whole deal started in practice, and there was supposedly a punch thrown in the NASCAR hauler. No one will confirm or deny the punch, and as they say "What happens in the NASCAR hauler, Stays in the NASCAR hauler."
• Don't forget that Thursday is Valentine's Day.

I hope everyone has a great week. The Journal-Times has a busy week planned, and we will have you covered no matter what the game.