By Michael Lindsay
York Institute and Stone Memorial split their non-district basketball games in Crossville Tuesday evening as the Dragonettes took the girls game by a 62-38 margin before the Panthers defended their home court with a 78-48 victory.
Girls
A 28-point outburst by York Institute junior point guard Reese Beaty led the Dragonettes to a 62-38 victory at Stone Memorial Tuesday evening.
“I thought we came out shooting the ball fairly well, and it’s a good thing because if we hadn’t it could have been a long night,” said York head coach Michael Green. “Stone has great size with those two post players. I was pleased, but we’ve still got a lot to work on.”
Beaty scored 14 of her 28 in the first quarter as the Dragonettes held a 23-12 lead after one period.
“She knows we need that, especially in these early games when we’re struggling offensively with a lot of new things and new people,” Green said. “We experimented and got some younger players in; we’ve got a very small bench and we’re going to try to work in those players.”
York kept control in the second period as they held a 33-22 lead at halftime. The Dragonettes outscored Stone Memorial 14-5 in the third quarter to take a 47-27 lead before winning by a 62-38 final.
Stone Memorial was led by 9 points from Kortney Headrick and 7 by Adison Howard
The Dragonettes are set to face Knox Catholic on Friday and Seymour on Saturday while Stone Memorial is off until next Tuesday’s trip to Pickett County.
Boys
The Stone Memorial Panthers won their home opener Tuesday as they pulled away in the second half for a 78-48 victory over York Institute.
“We’re excited we finally got to play a home game,” said Stone Memorial head coach Neil Capps. “Obviously for York, that’s the downside of success; they have a really good football team and good basketball players playing on that. So they were down some guys.”
Junior guard Cade Capps led the Panthers with 26 points along with 18 from senior forward Brady Lane.
“We had a lot of guys that really stepped up,” coach Capps said. “We’re starting to get offense from a lot of guys. Hopefully, we’ll continue to mesh and improve.”
York Institute was led by 17 points from forward Heath Wattenbarger and 14 by Carter Gibson.
“We got after them,” coach Capps said. “We knew they still had the capability to be really good with Conatser and Wattenbarger, so we wanted to make sure we were better defensively.”
Stone Memorial controlled the early portions as a Lane transition basket with 2:58 left in the opening period put his team ahead 14-3.
The Panthers weren’t done there as they held a commanding 21-3 lead after the first period. Stone led 34-17 at halftime and 59-33 going into the fourth quarter as they closed out to win by a 78-48 final.
Stone Memorial takes a week off as the Panthers will travel to Pickett County next Tuesday. York Institute’s next scheduled game is against the Panthers again next Friday, December 1.
