Too much Morrow: Mavs fall to Scott in consolation
Anderson County’s Carter Nelson slices through the Scott High defense for a basket during Monday night’s consola- tion game in District 4-3A play. (photo:Ken Leinart )
The game was much closer than the final score indicated.
“It was one of those games,” said Derek Wallace, Anderson County head coach. “Scott’s won 25 games and we haven’t. They know how to finish a game and we don’t.” .
The Mavs took the early lead on a pair of 3-pointers by Connor Martin and scores by Ryan McGhee, Brandon McGhee and Bryson Vowell.
Anderson County led until the Highlanders went up 18-17 with 53.6 seconds left in the first quarter. It was the last lead the Mavs held for the game as Scott led 20-17 heading into the second quarter.
Ryan McGhee trimmed the lead to 20-19 to open the quarter before Scott scored to go up 22-19. Martin scored to make it 22-21, but the Highlanders went on an 11-2 run in the closing three minutes to help propel them to a 35-34 halftime lead.
In the third quarter, scores from Martin, Ryan McGhee, Carter Nelson, Brandon Dake, and Zeke West helped keep the Mavs within six points of the lead at 42-36.
Early in the fourth quarter, Scott extended its lead to 10 points before scores by Martin, West, and Nelson cut the Highlanders’ edge to just six points at 50-44 with 4:45 left in the game. Scott then closed out the game on a 14-1 run to seal the win.
Trey Morrow of the Highlanders led all scorers with 34 points. Martin led Anderson County with 18 points.
“The Morrow kid is such a special player and we didn’t do a good job on him,” Wallace said. “When Brandon McGhee got hurt [early in the third quarter] and Tate Russell was in some foul trouble, the deeper I had to go into the bench, the more and more we turned the ball over.”
The Mavs will open region tournament play at either Gibbs or Carter Saturday at 7 p.m. in a win-or-go-home game.
“We swept Gibbs in the regular season and played Carter close,” Wallace said. “I think we have a shot to compete on Saturday and we’ll take our chances in the semi-final to go to the sub-state, which the way we’ve played this year I’m not sure we really deserve that opportunity. But here we are with that opportunity that we never would have had in the old league, so we’re blessed in that sense. I’m really excited about it.”
AC 17 8 11 9 45
Scott 20 14 12 18 64
AC - Connor Martin (18), Carter Nelson (7), Ryan McGhee (6), Zeke West (4), Brandon McGhee (4), Bryson Vowell (4), Brandon Dake (2)
Scott - Trey Morrow (34), Luke West (11), Dalton Prewitt (7), Brayden Brumett (4), Toby Garratt (2), Caray Todd (2), Kayleb Woodward (2)