Despite a long layoff due to the holidays and bad weather, the Avery junior varsity basketball squads finally returned to action with rare Saturday games at Polk County and home games on Monday afternoon against fellow conference member Madison.JV Girls:
The Avery Lady Vikings snapped a recent streak of bad luck on the court at the expense of the Lady Wolverines, routing Polk by a 49-21 score for the team’s first conference victory of the season.
Avery came out strong defensively but showed a little rust on the offensive end during the opening quarter in taking a four-point edge at 6-2 after one quarter of play.
The team found its offensive groove to match its defensive intensity in the second stanza. Megan Dellinger and Kelsie Clarke each needed five points in the second quarter as part of a 13-0 second quarter spurt. The defense clamped down as well, holding Polk scoreless for the second quarter en route to a 19-2 halftime lead.
The Lady Vikings opened the third period with a 9-3 scoring run to effectively put the game out of reach. Shayna Vance netted a pair of three-pointers in the frame and eight of her team-high 12 points in the stanza as Avery led 31-10 after three quarters on the way to the road win.
Monica Estep added 11 points, seven rebounds, and six steals in the Avery victory, with nine points and five steals from Kelsie Clark.
“We were just hungry to play ball more than anything else today since we haven’t played in such a while. If we keep our heads about us, I don’t think we will lose a game the rest of the year,” head coach Pat Daniels said following the win.
The win was a complete team effort with the entire roster contributing to the triumph. “It wasn’t necessarily our best defensive effort this season, considering the competition being a little weaker than some we’ve faced. We played good defense at times against Watauga, Cloudland, and West Wilkes,” Coach Daniels added. “Even though this Polk team beat Mitchell by 12 points earlier this season, we could have beaten them by a larger margin. But we made an effort to give everybody the opportunity to play and I was happy to see the contributions off the bench. Paige Henderson scored four points which was good for her, and Abigail Vance also came in and played well.”
Avery did not play a junior varsity girls game on Monday against Madison as the Patriots do not field a JV girls team this season.
JV Boys:
Avery’s junior varsity boys team played a tight first half against the host Polk Wolverines Saturday afternoon, trailing by only three points at intermission. A scoring run by the Wolverines stole momentum from Avery in the third quarter as Polk went on to garner a 42-29 conference victory.
The Viking offense in the first quarter came courtesy of Dustin Clark, who scored all eight points on four field goals as the Big Red led 8-7 after one quarter of action.
Five different players scored for Polk in the second quarter, but a three-pointer from Austin Lyons helped the Vikings stay within 17-14 at halftime.
Polk County came out like gangbusters to start the second half. Avery on the other hand was unable to find the basket and had difficulty rebounding against the taller Polk club. The Wolverines outscored Avery 19-3 in the third quarter to take a commanding 36-17 advantage.
Avery refused to give in as it outscored Polk 12-6 in the final stanza, but the third quarter proved the downfall as Polk took the 13-point win.
Clark’s eight points paced the Vikings, with five from Dylan Greene and four points from Shea Buchanan.
On Monday night the junior varsity boys picked up its second win in three games, winning an exciting contest by a 35-34 final score.
The first period was nip-and-tuck as the teams played to a virtual standstill. Avery received two baskets from Dustin Clark to help take a narrow 10-9 lead after the first quarter of play. Madison bounced back to regain the lead at 17-15 at halftime despite the second of two 3-point baskets in the half by Austin Lyons.
Indicative of the back-and-forth nature of the contest, the Vikings worked to regain the advantage, outscoring Madison 8-4 in the third period to again pull in front by the score of 23-21. Avery made the only significant scoring run early in the fourth quarter with a 7-1 margin over the first four minutes of the final frame to take a commanding 30-22.
Much to the Patriots’ credit, Madison rallied late to draw even with the Vikings at 32-32 in the final minute of play. The teams traded baskets to tie the game again at 34.
Late in the contest Avery guard Lane Smith collected a Madison turnover and was fouled on a layup attempt with 0.1 second left on the clock. Smith hit the first of two free throws to provide for the final margin of victory.
“Watching the game if felt like déjà vu all over again from last year,” Avery head coach Reggie Oakes said after the win. “I thought defensively we played great. We had a little trouble with boxing out and we got away from our game and remaining aggressive late, but the kids played really hard considering the layoff and having played only one game. We had kids contribute off the bench also. Our offense is doing a better job of taking the ball to the basket, but we still need to work on being ready for the pass when a player penetrates.”
Shea Buchanan led Avery with eight points in the victory, with seven points from Austin Lyons and six apiece from Bryce Pittman and Dustin Clark.
The Vikings returned to action earlier this week with a home game against Mountain Heritage and travel this Friday night to Ledger to take on rival Mitchell. Reports on these contests can be found in next week’s print edition, as well as the Avery Journal-Times Sports Blog at www.ajtsports.blogspot.com.
