The 2009-10 edition of the Avery Vikings junior varsity basketball teams hit the hardwood on Tuesday, November 24th with a matchup in Avery played hard and looked sharp at times, but the ‘Landers proved too much to handle in both junior varsity games, winning the girls game by the final score of 44-42 and the boys game by a final score of 67-38.
The Lady Vikings got off to a slow start with only four points in the first quarter while the Lady ‘Landers took an 11-4 advantage through one quarter. Avery rallied to cut the margin in the second quarter behind a pair of baskets from Monica Estep and three points from teammate Kelsie Clark. By half’s end the Lady Vikings found themselves down a single point at 17-16.
As the second half began Estep heated up offensively for the Big Red. She tallied six points in the quarter as part of a game-high 15-point output. Unfortunately for Avery, Sydney Miller also found the shooting touch for Cloudland, as she scored eight of her team-high 14 points in the third quarter to extend the ‘Landers advantage to
Cloudland extended its edge to 40-30 with just over five minutes to play, but Avery rallied behind the tandem of Clarke and Estep, who scored 12 of the team’s final 13 points, as well as by using its press defense. A pair of Bethany Chambers free throws put the Lady ‘Landers up by five points in the final 20 seconds of play, but a Clarke three-pointer for Avery narrowed the lead to two. Cloudland then ran out the remaining time to provide for the final margin. .
Summer Hughes was the only other Cloudland player in double figures with ten points, while Estep’s 15 was complimented by nine points from Clarke and four assists from Shayna Vance.
“This was our first game where we were able to let our starters play extended time. We started slowly but we made a comeback to cut the lead to two in the final quarter,” junior varsity girls head coach Pat Daniels said following the game. “I feel good about our girls and I think we will do well again this year. Monica really stepped up and all our sophomores are pretty solid for us. We were disappointed in the loss, but we’re pumped up to be able to play Cloudland at home this week.”
The junior varsity boys team followed up the girls contest and was unable to tame a tough Cloudland squad. Cloudland used a balanced scoring effort to take a 16-5 advantage after one period and led 35-19 at intermission.
Avery looked to get back into the contest behind the play of Dustin Clark, who scored 12 of his team-high 16 points in the second half en route to a double-double for the game. Cloudland answered with the play of Taylor Whitehead, who tallied 13 of his game-high 17 points in the second half to keep Avery at bay. A 26-point third period by the ‘Landers dashed any hope for a Viking victory.
“You could tell we were young and still trying to work out some things defensively and offensively. I thought Cloudland’s pressure gave us some trouble early on and we didn’t respond well at first. Later on we seemed to play better,” JV boys head coach Reggie Oakes said after the game. “We worked to get to the line and shoot more free throws than our opponent, and I was pleased that we made it to the line as much as we did. We just have to do a better job of keeping the opponent off the line. Cloudland was very quick to the basketball and that gave us trouble, but it was a good early test that will help us when we play our conference opponents down the road.”
In addition to
The junior varsity squads returned to action Tuesday night with the rematch at Viking Gym against Cloudland, then will host Watauga this Friday night.
