by Rusty Ellis
The York Institute Dragonettes earned their 20th straight win in dominant fashion, as they defeated the Jackson County Lady Devils 62-15 on Thursday night.
It was a heavy defensive effort from the jump, as the Dragonettes limited the Lady Devils to just four points apiece in the first and second quarters, leading to a 41-8 lead at the half for York.
It was more of the same in the third quarter, as the Lady Devils only mustered up three points of offense and followed it up with another four-point quarter in the fourth, as York earned the dominant 62-15 win on Senior Night.
For head coach Michael Green, the defense is what stuck out to him the most from his team’s 20th straight win.
“I thought we were really good defensively,” Green said. “That was a really good defensive performance…It was a good night for the seniors. There was a lot of emotion for them, but they came out and played really well tonight.”
York honored Ellie Leffew, Gabby Beaty and Emy Crabtree as their three seniors, three players that have done a lot for Green in his tenure as the head coach.
“They’re huge for us, we’re going to miss all three of them,” Green said. “Gabby’s done it all for four years, offensively and defensively…Ellie’s the same way, she doesn’t get a lot of credit for what she does defensively for us and she’s a great passer on offense. When Emy gets going, she might hit 10 in a row. Every game, she gets better and better. She’s moving a lot more and getting in the paint more and she’s doing really good things for us.”
The Dragons won a thrilling boys contest to follow up the girls, as a Myles Leffew three just before the buzzer gave York a 46-45 win over Jackson County.
Jackson County appeared to take control early, as a three in the first finished off an 11-2 run to open the game for the Blue Devils. York didn’t go away however, as they closed with 11 of the final 13 points to tie the score at 13-all heading to the second quarter.
The game remained close near the end of the second, as Kendrick Brown hit a turnaround jumper to make it a one-point York lead at 28-27 heading into the half.
A low-scoring third saw Jackson County take a four-point lead into the fourth, thanks to a buzzer-beating Waylon Kennedy three-pointer which made the score 36-32.
The Blue Devils held the lead for much of the fourth, until the Dragons’ final possession. As they got the ball with 15 seconds left, the original play was drawn up for Blaine York to get a three out of the corner, but once Jackson County sniffed that out, the ball ended up in the hands of Leffew for the open three from the right wing to give York a much-needed 46-45 win over JCHS.
After a couple tough losses for Rodney Pile’s squad, he knows how much this one meant to his team.
“Both of us have district games on Friday, and if we both take care of business, we’ll be co-champions,” Pile said. “We hit a little lull here, and you don’t want to go into the district tournament on a lull…a lot of things didn’t go our way tonight, you’ve got to give Jackson County a lot of credit. They battled tonight.”
With two more games left this week, Pile knows there’s plenty his team can still improve on.
“We need to look to assist,” Pile said. “We’ve had a couple games where we’ve had 20 assists, and that’s huge. We need to get back to trying to help each other score.”
The Dragons will take on Bledsoe County on the road on Friday, while Jackson will host Sequatchie County.
