Mavericks edge Dragons
The Anderson County Mavericks won a thriller on the road Monday, defeating Clinton 63-61.
The tone of the game was established early as Braden Irwin gave Anderson County the initial lead but Luke Harrison tied the game and Evan Winchester’s 3-pointer gave the Dragons an early lead.
Irwin answered with a basket but Winchester sank another trey. The Mavericks’ Jordan Hembree nailed a 3-pointer of his own to keep it a one-point game.
Trevon Hill scored for Clinton and Irwin answered for Anderson County.
Chase Lockard hit a 3-pointer for the Dragons but Harrison Ogburn nailed a 3-pointer near the end of the quarter to send the game into the second quarter with Clinton leading 17-16.
The teams continued to trade baskets throughout the second quarter as neither team could get separation.
Grant Hayes scored for the Mavericks while Daraon Jones answered for the Dragons. Hembree scored for Anderson County and Lockard answered for Clinton.
Ogburn hit a 3-pointer with a 1:27 left in the first half to give the Mavericks a 28-26 lead. Harrison scored to tie the game and send it into the half with the teams deadlocked at 28-28.
Spencer Chandler gave Anderson County a 39-28 lead to open the third quarter and a couple of big 3-pointers by Marquise Gallahar helped the Mavericks maintain a 42-41 lead at the end of three quarters.
With 4:54 left in the game, Winchester gave his team a 50-49 lead. Jones then connected from beyond the arc to extend the lead to 53-49.
Hembree hit a 3-pointer to tie the game at 57-57 with 1:40 remaining in the game. Hill scored to give the Dragons a 59-57 lead but Ogburn was true from 3-point range to give Anderson County a 60-59 lead with 1:10 left in the game.
With 33.1 seconds left, Jones scored to give Clinton a 61-60 lead.
As time ticked off of the clock late, Gallahar drilled a long 3-pointer to give the Mavericks a 63-61 lead with 5.2 seconds left.
After a timeout, the Dragons pushed the ball up the floor. A shot was off the mark but Clinton got the rebound and the put back, appearing to have sent the game into overtime. Officials immediately and emphatically waved off the shot and the Mavericks moved to 3-0 in District 3-AAA.
“I felt like we had a little more depth than the did. We’re shooting it pretty good this year and I felt like if we had the ball last we had a good shot at winning. You can’t really say whoever touched the ball last because it was tough to tell when the horn went off and when the shot went off. It looked awfully close I would have been satisfied with an OT game but I’ll take a win at Clinton,” said Derek Wallace, head coach of the Mavericks.
“I think it’s the first time in eight or nine years we’ve been 3-0 in the district,” he said.
Wallace also wanted to acknowledge Marquise Gallahar’s efforts in the game.
“I challenged him at halftime. They were not guarding him outside and I said, ‘You’ve got to make them respect you.’ He hit the game winner there at the end and our shooters did what they had to do. I am so tickled,” he said.
Lockard disagreed with the official’s ruling at the end of the game.
“I felt like we forced them to do what we needed them to do. We just didn’t rebound well in the first half and went into halftime time instead of ahead,” said Chris Lockard, head coach of the Dragons.
“I loved our rotations tonight. I wanted to play DeMarcus McKamey but it all comes down to matchups. Tip your hat to them - they shot the ball well but I still feel like we ought to be finishing that overtime right about now,” he said.
Chandler led Anderson County with 14 points. As a team the Mavericks made 10 3-pointers - three each came from Ogburn, Hembree, and Gallahar.
Jones led Clinton with 18 points while Winchester added 13 points.
AC 16 17 14 21 63
CHS 17 11 13 20 61
AC — Spencer Chandler (14), Harrison Ogburn (11), Marquise Gallahar (11), Braden Irwin (11), Jordan Hembree (9), Grant Hayes (2)
CHS — Daraon Jones (18), Evan Winchester (13), Trevon Hill (10), Luke Harrison (10), Chase Lockard (5), Andrew Shoopman (3), DeMarcus McKamey (2)
The Mavericks opened district play with a big 58-50 road win over Campbell County last Tuesday.
The Cougars matched the Mavericks point for point in the first quarter as the two teams entered the second quarter tied at 13-13.
Anderson County managed to pulled into a 27-23 lead at halftime thanks largely to the scoring of Irwin and Chandler.
In the third quarter the Mavericks pushed their lead to 43-34 as Gallahar and Hembree added 3-pointers for Anderson County.
The Cougars tried to rally in the fourth quarter but was only able to shave a single point off of the Mavericks’ advantage.
“Braden Irwin had 18 points. Never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined that. He didn’t play as an eighth or ninth grader. It’s amazing to watch that. We were 14-15 from the free throw line and that was the difference in the game,” Wallace said.
Irwin led Anderson County with 18 points while Chandler chipped in with 12 points. Gallahar finished with nine points on the strength of a trio of 3-pointers.
AC 13 14 16 15 58
CC 13 10 11 16 50
AC — Braden Irwin (18), Spencer Chandler (12), Marquise Gallahar (9), Grant Hayes (6), Matthew Ray (5), Jordan Hembree (3)
CC — E. Jackson (13), J. Porter (12), L. Berry (8), L. Addington (8), C. Wells (7), J. Lane (2)
The Mavericks rolled over visiting Knox Central 56-39 on Friday night.
Ogburn opened scoring for Anderson County with a 3-pointer. The Bobcats pulled into a 5-3 lead and Ogburn buried another trey to give the Mavericks a lead they would not relinquish as Irwin and Hayes scored while Chandler dropped in a pair of 3-pointers to propel Anderson County to a 20-9 first quarter lead.
Hembree scored seven points in the first two minutes of the second quarter as the Mavericks grew their lead to 39-25 at halftime.
Offensive production slowed for Anderson County in the third quarter as Chandler, Ogburn, and Irwin provided all of their points as they entered the fourth quarter with a 46-35 lead.
After Chandler opened the quarter with a basket, the Bobcats scored with 6:46 remaining in the game. It was their last field goal as the Mavericks defense clamped down. Another 3-pointer from Ogburn killed any momentum Central had left and Anderson County went on for the win.
“This is the best shooting team I’ve had in a long time and that’s even without Stanton [Martin], a great playmaker himself. We don’t usually beat Central at our place, we usually beat them over there. We knew if they dominated the glass we’d be in trouble but Harrison Ogburn carried us with his 3-pointers,” Wallace said.
Chandler led the Mavericks with 18 points while Ogburn had 12 points — all from beyond the arc.
KC 9 16 10 4 39
AC 20 19 7 10 56
Central — S. Oglesby (10), D. Moss (9), H. Allen (7), I. Frank (5), T. Summers (2), T. Oneal (2)
AC — Spencer Chandler (18), Harrison Ogburn (12), Jordan Hembree (8), Braden Irwin (5), Grant Hayes (4), Landon Miller (3), Matthew Ray (2), Brady Moore (2), Brady Garren (2)