Jacksonville Progress
November 21, 2008 04:54 pm
—
By Jay Neal
sports@jacksonvilleprogress.com
NEW SUMMERFIELD — The New Summerfield girls and boys basketball squads racked up big wins Thursday in the opening round of their own tournament in the New Summerfield Gymnasium.
Both Lady Hornets head coach Josh Faucett and Hornets head coach Jason Davis said the games, while different in makeup, were just what their respective clubs needed at this time.
The Lady Hornets steamrolled Longview Christian 57-6 to pick up their first win of the year after a pair of tough losses in the past week.
“We needed a win like this to get a lot of kids some playing time and to be able to work on things in a game situation,” Faucett said. “This will go a long way in building confidence and that is important at this time of the year.”
Leading 30-4 at intermission Faucett was able to empty the bench and get everyone into the action in front of a large home crowd.
Guided by a 14-point night from Daisy Vargas, the Lady Hornets saw three team members score in double figures.
Amanda Leon and Ana Hernandez each ripped the twine for 10 points for New Summerfield.
Other Lady Hornets to chalk up points were Justine Derret with eight, Brea Mims and Brittany Blanton with six each, Stacy Suarez with four, Kim Tennison with two and Yanderi Rodriquez with a point.
The New Summerfield girls move on to the semifinals at 6 p.m. today against the LaPoyner junior varsity team.
Lady Hornets 50, Carlisle 30
Facing Carlisle for the second time in 48 hours, the Hornets appeared headed down the same path the Lady Hornets had taken earlier in the evening as New Summerfield’s defense kept Carlisle off the scoreboard for 5 minutes, 51 seconds in the latter stages of the first quarter and into the first portion of the second, while the Hornet offense pumped in 10 points on their side of the court.
Sophomore post Diyrel White electrified the Hornets fans by opening the game with a slam dunk off a coast-to-coast steal.
“I can tell you one thing, it has been a long, long time since a New Summerfield player dunked a ball in this gym,” Davis said.
The Hornets (2-0) also received three NBA-range treys off the right wing from Jay Pollard in the opening two quarters of play.
New Summerfield held a 29-11 advantage at the break.
Carlisle wasn’t ready to concede the outcome though, as the Indians outscored the Hornets 8-2 in the third quarter.
With 5:52 left to play in the game Carlisle managed to close to within six points at 31-25 following a free throw by Phillip Jahn.
Davis quickly called a timeout and evidently had a few words of encouragement for his troops as New Summerfield put together a 6-2 run to get a firm grip on the situation once again.
The Hornets put the icing on the cake by ripping off a 10-1 run to close out the final two minutes of play as the Hornets logged a double-digit victory — 50-30 — over the Indians once again.
Pollard from downtown and White from down low proved to be a deadly mix for the Indians as the pair of Hornets combined to score 36 of New Summerfield’s 50 points. Pollard led all scorers with 23 while White put in 13.
Davis said Carlisle gave his team a run for their money and forced the Hornet reserves to step up and answer the bell.
“This is the second time we have had to fight back and beat those guys,” Davis said. “Carlisle has an athletic group of kids and I am proud of the way we fought back after getting into foul trouble again.
“The bench players keep stepping up and I think we have shown we have a little depth on this team and that was what we needed to find out,” he said.
With the win, New Summerfield moves into Saturday’s final against the winner of Elkhart and Longview Christian.
Copyright © 1999-2008 cnhi, inc.