Straughn, Red Level win behind strong shooting

Straughn utilized an up tempo and transition game to garner a 72-44 victory over Kinston for its season opener on Thursday night.

SHS led 52-28 at halftime and outscored the Bulldogs 18-4 in the third period.

Red Level beat New Brockton 76-56 to start Straughn’s annual boys Christmas tournament.

Pleasant Home fell 58-31 to Georgiana in the second game of the day.

Tournament action continues today with Straughn facing Florala tonight at 7:30. RLS plays Georgiana at 6, and Pleasant Home will play Kinston at 4:30.

Straughn 72, Kinston 44

Straughn guard JD Driver was 7-for-8 from the perimeter and scooped up 11 rebounds for a double-double.

Along with Driver’s 27 points, Hobie Hughes added 14 points and seven rebounds to pace the Tigers. Devin Scott had seven rebounds.

Additionally, Brice Scott scored 13 points in the win.

SHS coach Rusty Andrews said it’s nice to have more guys to lean on during games.

“I was pleased with the effort,” Andrews said. “We can play a little different style ball this time.”

After back-to-back 3-pointers from Driver, Straughn led 347-20 with a little more than four minutes remaining in the first half.

Brice laid in a put back off of Devin’s steal and missed lay up with time ticking away in the second period.

The Tigers led 52-28 at halftime.

Driver helped SHS take a 63-30 lead after a drive to the basket and another 3-pointer in the third period.

Due to a new mercy rule in basketball, if a team is leading by 30 points in the fourth period, the clock will run unless time is called.

That was exactly the case in the fourth period for the Tigers.

Lance Clark led KHS with 16 points. Patrick Smith chipped in 11 points.

Red Level 76, New Brockton 56

Red Level’s Dee Tolbert made seven 3-pointers on his way to a 27-point game.

KJ Lawrence added 20 points and Spencer Stallworth paced the team with 12 points.

Tolbert’s first tré in the first period gave his team a 7-4 advantage with 5:41 on the clock. His second came at the first’s buzzer and RLS led 14-9 after the first eight minutes.

New Brockton went on a 6-0 run after two successful possessions by Red Level to start the second period, and trailed 19-15.

Tolbert’s five 3-pointers in the first half, Tim Sim’s dominant play on the inside and Lawrence’s basket attacks kept Red Level in the game the last four minutes of a lack luster first half. RLS led 37-28 at the break.

“We’re not playing gritty like we need to play,” RLS coach Allen Catrett said. “We’re trying to have an on and off switch too much. You’ve got to be ready to play all of the time. Too many times, it looked like we were going through the motions.”

Catrett said he urged his players to play harder in the second half.

“It’s not so much what we’re doing, it was how we’re doing it,” he said.

The Tigers had a better third period, outscoring the Gamecocks 16-9.

Tolbert’s last two 3-pointers put RLS (5-2) ahead 61-41 early in the fourth period to put the game away.

 

Georgiana 58,

Pleasant Home 31

Pleasant Home coach Jerry Davis said the score wasn’t any indication of how well his boys played against the Panthers.

“About 24 minutes of the game we probably played as well as we could play,” Davis said.

Davis wasn’t lying.

The Eagles (4-3) kept close to unbeaten Georgiana in the first period, despite trailing 11-7.

One point separated the scoring in the second period, but the Panthers led 25-20.

GHS went on to take a 41-27 lead after the third period and outscored the Eagles 17-4 in the fourth to get the win.

“We can’t play at that pace,” Davis said. “That’s why a team presses and gets after it. They’re trying to force a high-tempo pace and get after it. We can’t play that, not against the people that do it.”

Lance Davis led the Eagles with 21 points. Jon Cole Chesser added four points.

While this may have been a loss for the varsity squad, Pleasant Home’s seventh-grade boys beat Straughn 33-29 to win their first Covington County Junior High Tournament championship.