Avery was feeling the effects of having as many as five of its players still playing football as part of the state 1-AA gridiron playoffs. However, the Pioneers felt little pity for the undermanned Big Red.
Avery hung tough with the Pioneers for much of the first half, as it held a 17-13 lead after one period. Viking senior standout guard Dustin Clarke paced Avery with 13 of the first-period points. Watauga stepped up its pressure and outscored the Vikings 24-10 in the second quarter to seize control and take a 10-point lead at 37-27 into halftime.
What occurred over the final 16 minutes of play was a decisive two-quarter rout by the home-standing Pioneers, who was christening its brand new Lentz-Eggers Gym for its first-ever night of regular season basketball.
Watauga was on fire on offense and lit up Avery for a 41-8 third quarter run to take a commanding 78-35 lead that Avery had no answer for.
“We just ran out of gas,” Avery head basketball coach Bo Manis said after the game.
Watauga was 26-of-33 from the foul line for the night and had the help of five 3-pointers from Jake Pifer, who led all scorers with 26 points. Teammate Will Koppenhaver added 22 points.
Clarke led Avery with 23 points, including four 3-pointers, and seven rebounds. Joey Potter
scored 10 points with three assists, while both Timmy Stewart and Benji Stewart scored seven points each.
“As much as I want to say it made a difference that we didn’t have our football players, I was still happy for them that they were out playing,” Manis said. “It was a good test for the varsity players who were playing to understand about battling adversity and dealing with it. It was a good test for us.”
The testing proved helpful for the Big Red as they turned it into triumph in the team’s lone game at last weekend’s Unimin Harvest Hoops Invitational tournament at Mitchell High School, defeating the Mount Airy Bears on Friday, Nov. 26, by a 63-55 final score.
Avery came out on fire in the second half and built a lead as large as 19 points on the Bears. However, Mount Airy staged a comeback as the Bears took advantage of a young and thin Viking bench to cut the deficit to 47-41 at the end of three periods and to as close as three points.
Unlike the Watauga rally three days previously, the Vikings responded to the Bears run to catch its second wind. Clarke picked up the club with 11 of his game-high 26 points in the fourth quarter, including a perfect 5-for-5 from the free throw line. Benji Stewart added a pair of baskets as the Vikings fended off Mount Airy to secure its first victory of the season.
In addition to Clarke, Timmy Stewart poured in 12 points, with 10 apiece from Benji Stewart and Potter.
“We worked on defense after the Watauga game and jumping to the ball, as well as closing in and boxing out better, and I think that was big. We moved the ball around really well and a lot of guys got touches with the ball,” Manis said of the win. “Basically we ran a six-man rotation which helped, but the defense played well and we made several corrections compared to Watauga. Mount Airy was well disciplined and played good defense. But we’re also a good defensive team, though, and we hung right in there with them.”
This week the Vikings traveled across the border to nearby Roan Mountain, Tenn. to take on the Cloudland Highlanders on Tuesday, Nov. 30, and Avery plays its home opener this Friday, Dec. 3, when it hosts Watauga looking for payback from last week’s loss.
