Salisbury scraps by Dragons
Fri. January 27, 2012 at 11:56 p.m. | By Contributed Story
Just as every picture painted cannot be a Picasso –– every victory cannot be pretty.
Thus was the case in Salisbury’s 51-35 win at West Davidson Friday night.
The Hornets trailed the home Dragons by a whopping score of 8-6 through one quarter –– then outscored them 45-27 over the final three.
“Yeah, our start wasn’t very good, but that seems to be the way we do it,” Salisbury coach Jason Causby said. “I think the key was that the guys played together in that second half and we really turned our defense up on them except the last three minutes of the fourth quarter where we kinda slacked up so we gotta finish much stronger, but overall I’m pleased with the defense.”
Veteran guards Tion McCain and B.J. Woods led the way with nine points apiece, while big man Keion Adams was a force inside with eight points for the Hornets.
“They have such a long team and every time we would get an opening to shoot, their recovery time on us was incredible. We really weren’t able to do much after that first quarter,” West Davidson coach Russ Snyder said.
Austin Teague led the Dragons with 11 points as outside attempts were pretty much all the home team could muster against the Hornet height.
Salisbury was able to get the ball inside at will for most of the game, but it had a sloppy time finishing its scoring chances.
“The biggest positive that I think we can take from tonight is the way that the kids stayed composed after that first quarter when we didn’t look very good. They came back and took some pride in themselves and that was real nice to see,” Causby said.
Salisbury has seemed to have troubles in the early season finding the right chemistry and getting off firing on all cylinders.
Early in the fourth quarter, while the Hornets saw their lead growing, a jaw-dropping play shocked the crowd.
A lob was thrown at the right side of the rim and was caught by Hornet big man Tyler Petty.
The 6-foot-7 Petty, realizing that he was too far away to dunk it, went reverse and flipped the ball over his head into the basket –– all while being fouled in the process and drawing some cheers from the black and red clad faithful.
Petty’s play, along with big shots from Woods and McCain, helped cement the lead and slay the Dragons.
As for West Davidson, Snyder hopes to keep seeing improvement down the road that he saw against the Hornets.
“We just have to keep attacking every game and playing tough and keep working on our offense and scoring the ball when we have our chances,” Snyder said.
“It was definitely a lot prettier for us this time than we last played them, but like I said, we will keep working hard and keep improving.”