‘Shot selection’ hurts Mavs in road loss
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Ryan McGhee (4) scored 12 points for the Mavericks in last Tuesday night’s matchup with Powell. - Ricky Williams
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Hayden Craig (11) shoots over Powell’s Brian Carraher during last Tuesday’s away matchup against the Panthers. - Ricky Williams
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Anderson County’s Cole Russell had 14 points in the Mav- ericks’ outing against Powell last Tuesday night. - Ricky Williams
Anderson County High School has had more than its share of struggles out of the starting gate to open the 2023-24 boys basketball season.
The Mavericks closed out the pre-Thanksgiving portion of their schedule with a road loss early last week,
ACHS, which has dropped four of its first five games this year, came up on the short end of a 61-52 decision against the host Panthers at Powell High’s Jeff Hunter Gymnasium on Tuesday, Nov. 21.
The Mavs (1-4) started fast in Northwest Knox County as they opened an early 9-6 lead and outscored Powell (3-0) 17-13 in the opening frame. The Panthers chipped away and narrowed their deficit to three, at 30-27, by halftime.
Anderson County had some success against Powell’s full-court man-to-man defense over the first 16 minutes of the contest, so Panthers Coach Gary Barnes made a defensive adjustment and took the full-court pressure off after halftime.
“We came out in full-court man, and I don’t think we were quite prepared for that since we’ve only had our football guys out for a couple of days,” Barnes said.
“They were beating us and getting by us, so at halftime, we switched to half-court man.”
That proved to be the right move as the Mavericks struggled for the rest of the night.
But ACHS Coach Jordan Jeffers said the loss had more to do with his team’s shot selection than the Panthers’ defensive adjustment.
“They took the pressure off, but we took bad shots,” Jeffers said. “We took some bad shots in the first half, but we made some of those bad shots and that’s fool’s gold.
“I thought we played really well defensively, and defensively we played well enough to win the ballgame, but we were atrocious offensively, and as the head coach, I’ll take the blame for that. That falls on me and it’s my fault.”
The Mavericks managed just 22 points after halftime, and fell behind 45-39 by the end of the third quarter.
“When you shoot 25% from the floor and shoot worse than that from (beyond) the three-point line and you don’t shoot well from the free-throw line, you’re not going to win games, you’re just not going to beat anybody,” Jeffers said.
While the Mavericks’ offensive woes worsened after halftime, Powell’s top two scorers heated up.
Kaleb Walker scored 20 of his game-high 25 points over the final 16 minutes of the contest.
Nathan Russell got 10 of his 18 points after the break to spearhead the Panthers’ second-half surge that propelled
them into the win column.
“Nate and Kaleb play with such great intensity,” Barnes said.
“They make sacrifices and they do things the way we want to do things around here.”
Brandon Dake led Anderson County with 16 points.
Cole Russell added 14 and Ryan McGhee added 12.