BlueRidgeNow.com
Feb 27, 2008
NEWTON -- Part of the challenge in the state boys' high school basketball playoffs is being able to play the game different ways.
By Chris Hobbs
Hickory Daily Record
NEWTON -- Part of the challenge in the state boys' high school basketball playoffs is being able to play the game different ways.For the Newton-Conover boys on Tuesday night, it was about measuring up to West Henderson's physical style in a first-round game of the 2-A bracket.Keeping their cool, the Red Devils edged the Falcons 60-50 to advance to a second round game on Thursday at 7 p.m. at Mountain Heritage, a 47-46 first-round winner over North Wilkes.Adrian Powell scored 14 points, Roderick Geter had 12 points and six rebounds and Jordan Gibbs had 10 points and nine rebounds as Newton-Conover (17-9) won for the 10th time in 11 games."Composure," said Gibbs of why he felt the Red Devils won. "And keeping it together and some of the other guys stepping up."The Red Devils overcame two early fouls on Powell and Gibbs and an aggressive effort by the Falcons (13-13), who are coached by former East Burke head coach Rob Bliss.When Powell and Gibbs were in early foul trouble, it did not disrupt the Red Devils' offense, with Grant Vinson coming off the bench to score four second-quarter points.Newton-Conover led 30-16 at the half.Zach Corliss led West Henderson with 25 points and Buddy Hutchinson had 13.A late 13-5 run by the Falcons made it a 10-point game after Newton-Conover had leads of as many as 19 points late in the third quarter.SummaryWEST HENDERSON (50) -- James 2, Corliss 25, Hutchinson 13, Ducote 4, Staggs 2, Troutman 4, Landreth, Isgett, Hyatt, Barbour, Roberts, Thomas, Thelen, Williams.NEWTON-CONOVER (60) -- Gillespie 8, Vinson 4, Royall 4, Davis 6, Geter 12, Powell 14, Kelley 2, Jordan Gibbs 10.Halftime: Newton-Conover, 30-16. Copyright © 2008 BlueRidgeNow.com
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Falcons fall to the Red Devils ... and another basketball season ends
Thursday, February 21, 2008
West Loses to Smoky Mountain
| West Henderson's Daniel Hyatt, right, and Smoky Mountain's Martin Davis battle for the loose ball during Wednesday WAC tournament semifinals at East Henderson. MIKE DIRKS/TIMES-NEWS |  |
Times-News Staff Writer
EAST FLAT ROCK -- A 10-0 run to close the first half gave West Henderson the momentum. Smoky Mountain took it all back in the third quarter of Wednesday's 72-51 Western Athletic Conference Tournament semifinal win.The second-seeded Mustangs (21-1) opened the second half with a 20-3 run to rout a team that handed them their first loss of the season."Our two previous games have been very similar," said West coach Rob Bliss. "They've had 10-, 12-point leads and we've been able to get back in the game. For whatever reason tonight we were unable to do that."West (13-12) had played the state's sixth-ranked 2-A team tough in the regular season, losing by two at Smoky Mountain in the second meeting. But apart from the late flurry to end the first half -- highlighted by Zach Corliss' pull-up 3-pointer at the buzzer -- the Falcons were taken apart in the third meeting."I thought even in the first half our execution, our effort, were just not of championship quality," Bliss said. "When you get to this point in the season you have to play with championship effort."Mustang freshman center Jackson Simmons scored 11 of his team-high 20 points in the first quarter as Smoky Mountain raced to a 9-2 lead and never trailed.After closing the gap to six at halftime, West managed just one field goal over the first 61/2 minutes of the third quarter allowing league co-champion Smoky Mountain to build a 28-point lead.Corliss scored a game-high 22 points and tied Daniel Hyatt with a team-high five rebounds. Buddy Hutchinson added 10 points for the Falcons, who, barring something unforeseen, will travel to Newton-Conover on Tuesday to open the 2-A playoffs."They killed us on the boards all night and got a lot of second-chance points," Bliss said.
BOYS
WEST (51) -- Roberts, Thelan, Williams, James 3, Troutman, Corliss 22, Isgett 2, Barbour 2, Staggs, Thomas, Hutchinson 10, Ducote 5, Hyatt 7.SMOKEY MOUNTAIN (72) -- Dunford 1, Hunt 6, Martin Davis 12, Brown 15, Fortner 15, Henson, Carter, Parris, Cauley, Frazier, Smith 6, Hyde, Simmons 20.Halftime: Smoky Mountain, 34-28.
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Game Center
Event Date:
Wednesday, February 20, 2008 Smoky Mountain West Henderson
72 51
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Final
Smoky Mountain 15 19 31 7 72
West Henderson 11 17 12 11 51
Game Summary
North Carolina High School Basketball - West Henderson ripped by Smoky Mountain
(February 20, 2008: Sylva, NC 28779) In Wednesday's non-league match, the host Smoky Mountain Mustangs basketball team scored a decisive 72-51 triumph over the West Henderson Falcons.
In their next game, the Mustangs confront the Pisgah Bears (Canton, NC) in a non-league match, on Friday, February 22. Smoky Mountain will attempt to move on its 19-2 season record. The Bears enter the match with a 19-2 record after their 61-53 non-league win over North Henderson (Hendersonville, NC).
With the defeat, West Henderson moves to 12-9 on the year.
Smoky Mountain
Scoring/Shooting # Athlete Name Pts FG FGA FG% 2FG 2FGA 3FG 3FGA FT FTA
No statistics have been entered for the team.
West Henderson
Scoring/Shooting # Athlete Name Pts FG FGA FG% 2FG 2FGA 3FG 3FGA FT FTA
Zach Corliss 22
Dallas Ducoate 5
Daniel Hyatt 7
Mike James 3
Matt Roberts 4
3 C Thelen 2
23 Buddy Hutchison 10
Team Totals: 53
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
West Beats East in the Tournament ... Matthew scores 3!
Feb 19, 2008
Falcons put away East
By Jeremy Darnell
Times-News Staff Writer
EAST FLAT ROCK -- The boys nightcap provided some drama early, but No. 3 West Henderson dominated the boards and pulled away for a 62-41 win over No. 6 East Henderson."It was a solid win and I knew East would come out and give us a great shot because they are a well-coached team," said West coach Rob Bliss. "One of our emphases was trying to take advantage inside tonight and I though we did a real nice job getting on the glass."The Falcons (13-12) outrebounded East 36-19 overall and 17-3 in the fourth quarter."They beat us to death on the boards, which is always a concern for us," said East coach John Johnston. "If we shoot well we are competitive, if not then we have a tough time."Chase Hill's 3 cut the West lead to 23-19 with 3:24 left in the first half but the Falcons reeled off a 10-point run and took a 14-point lead into the break.The lead grew to 19 after a Zach Corliss trey and Dallas Ducote jumper, but East's defense responded and held the Falcons scoreless over the next 6:20.The Eagles (5-18) trimmed the lead to 38-28, but Chris Staggs ended West's futility with a three-point play with 59.6 left in the third."We cut it to ten and then we had four straight turnovers," Johnston said. "Then they come down and get that three-point play to kill the momentum."We had opportunities, but when you work that hard to get it back to a manageable score, you gotta take advantage of those chances."Colby Thelen's put back pushed the lead to 14 and West never looked back."The highlight of the night for us was our young kids went in there and kind of rejuvenated us and rebuilt the lead for us."There was a scary moment with 1:54 left in the first quarter. A ball riccocheted off of a West player and cut the nearest referee's lip, spewing blood onto the court. The referee was treated by a team trainer and continued after a short break.Mike James led the Falcons with 12 points. Ducote added 11 points and nine rebounds, Daniel Hyatt chipped in with 11 points and seven boards and Corliss scored eight and dished out 10 assists.Hill finishhed with 13 to lead East. Michael Robinson added 10.West will face the No. 2 seed Smoky Mountain at 5:30 on Wednesday. The loss concludes East's season.
Summaries
EAST (41) -- Dorn, Hill 13, Roberts 6, Robinson 10, Whiteside 9, Ford 3, McClure.WEST (62) -- Roberts 3, Thelen 2, James 12, Troutman, Corliss 8, Barbour, Staggs, Thomas 2, Hutchinson 8, Ducote 11, Hyatt 11, Williams.Halftime: West, 33-19.
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Falcons embracing youth movement
Feb 15, 2008
West Henderson's boys were essentially eliminated from the Western Athletic Conference race with a loss to Pisgah on Feb. 1. Ever since the Falconshave been looking toward winning the 2009 WAC title."We want to try to win championships," West coach Rob Bliss said following a win over East Henderson on Feb. 8. "When we got taken out of the picture by Pisgah we said, 'OK, now these young kids are trying to a championships in 2009.'"We made a commitment to get them three, four minutes in each half."West's underclassman reserves -- juniors Tyler Isgett and Adam Troutman and sophomore Matt Roberts -- played significant minutes against the Eagles and not only maintained a lead when in the game, but added to it.If the Falcons do indeed win the WAC next winter, they can thank the latter stages of the 2008 year.
State poll watch
Hendersonville remained the lone area boys team to be ranked in the latest state polls from ncpreps.com. The 20-3 Bearcats are ranked eighth in the 1-A poll.Smoky Mountain's boys (20-2) moved up to second in the 2-A rankings, followed by WAC rival Pisgah (19-3) at eighth.On Thursday Pisgah defeated Smoky Mountain leaving the teams tied atop the WAC standings with 9-1 conference records.
Mountain Athletic Conference champion T.C. Roberson (22-1) was the lone area girls team ranked. The 3-A Lady Rams were fifth.WAC girls champion Smoky Mountain was ranked eighth in 2-A.
State stat watch
North Henderson may end the season with not one, but two scoring champions. According to ncpreps.com, senior Chris VanLandingham (34 points per game) leads the state in scoring through Wednesday by a comfortable margin over Northern Durham's Hunter McClintock.
During Tuesday's Senior Night festivities at North's Tom Pryor gymnasium it was announced that VanLandingham's average is second in the nation. Senior Morgan McMinn is locked in a three-person battle with Williamston's Katie Paschal and Eastern Wayne's Brittany Billups for the girls' scoring title. Back-to-back 35-point outings in her last two games have raised McMinn's average to 26.8 per game from 25.9 a week ago.
Conference tournaments
For most area teams, the regular season is already over or concludes today. The Smoky Mountain Conference tournament began Thursday in Andrews. The Western Highlands Conference and Western Athletic Conference tournaments will begin Monday. Mitchell will host the WHC tournament while East Henderson will host WAC teams.
Friday, February 15, 2008
Falcons fight by the Knights in OT
| West Henderson High School's Mike James goes in for a layup during Thursday's game against North Henderson at West. MICHAEL JUSTUS/TIMES-NEWS | |
Times-News Staff Writer
West Henderson senior Zach Corliss shook off a rough shooting night to hit a 3-pointer with just less than 10 seconds remaining in overtime to give the Falcons a 52-51 win over North Henderson in Thursday's regular-season finale.Seniors Mike James (13 points, seven rebounds) and Dallas Ducote (14 points, six rebounds) played large roles in West's Senior Night home win."I really feel like Mike was the difference for us tonight," West coach Rob Bliss said. "Dallas started hot for us then hit a little lull but kept his composure and did what he does for us on the glass."West finishes the regular season at 12-12 and 6-4 in conference to finish third. North, at 8-13, 3-7, finishes fourth to also earn an automatic playoff spot.North's girls (12-9, 4-6) held on for a 55-50 WAC win, leaving them tied with the Lady Falcons (6-16, 4-6) for third in the league. Lady Knight coach Kevin Rhodes said that a coin flip would determine which team would get the third seed in next week's conference tournament.A free throw from Chris VanLandingham gave North a 44-40 lead with just more than a minute remaining in regulation. Ducote scored inside with 1:04 to play and Corliss hit a pair of free throws to tie the score with 19.7 seconds left.VanLandingham had the ball at the top of key with time expiring and a whistle blew before just before the final horn sounded. No foul was called and the game went into overtime."The officials didn't say anything about it," North coach Skip Taylor said. "We heard a whistle."James scored four straight points at the foul line to open the extra period. A 3-pointer from North's Brad Buckner tied the score with 1:30 on the clock."I didn't think it was our best effort but a lot of credit for that goes to North Henderson and coach Taylor," Bliss said. "They came over here and got after our tails."VanLandingham then hit a pair of free throws with 15.7 seconds remaining to give him a game-high 32 points on the night."Chris is going to get his points because of the way they do things," Bliss said. "I think they're exactly right to do that. Mike did a tremoundous job guarding Chris on defense."With North holding a two-point lead, Corliss came off of a high ball screen from Ducote and fired from the left wing. After missing 10 straight shots, including five straight 3-pointers, his last attempt fell through cleanly."If they doubled we were looking for a slip out of our playside post or a reversal to Daniel (Hyatt)," said Bliss. "(Zach) asked me in the huddle, 'If my defender goes under (the screen) can I take it?' I said yes, we'll take the first good look we get."VanLandingham pushed upcourt and drove the lane, but his driving jumper was short."Zach hit a great shot," Taylor said. "He wasn't suppposed to get open. We didn't do a couple of things correctly. He got open and that's the last thing we wanted."Corliss finished with 14 points for West despite hitting just two field goals.
The WAC tournament will being on Monday at East Henderson.
BOYS
NORTH (51) -- Singletary 2, VanLandingham 32, Buckner 7, Searcy, Pressley 8, Lolley, Lytle, Brown 2.WEST (52) -- Roberts, James 13, Troutman, Corliss 14, Isgett, Barbour, Staggs, Hutchinson 2, Ducote 14, Hyatt 7, Thomas 2.Halftime: North, 25-21.
Saturday, February 9, 2008
Matt Scores 8 in Falcon's win over Uncle John's East Eagles
Milestone moment
West senior Corliss surpasses 1,000 career points
MIKE DIRKS/TIMES-NEWS
What occurred right after the final horn had sounded on Friday evening -- a postgame scuffle -- did not befit what came before.
West Henderson held on for a thrilling 60-58 Western Athletic Conference victory after East Henderson's final 3-point attempt with five seconds remaining sailed just long. It was a home win that secured the WAC's third playoff seed for the Falcons (11-11, 5-3 WAC) and it came on a night that saw senior Zach Corliss collect his 1,000th career point.
And then, after a game that went down to the wire, the rivalry turned heated. A physical altercation occurred in the hallway outside of the West locker room but was diffused by school administrators and Henderson County Sheriff's Deputies.
West coach Rob Bliss said he didn't see the fight. A coy Corliss claimed that "nothing happened."
"I'm not sure," East coach John Johnston said. "We'll get back, sort things out and go from there. It's a good rivalry and that's the way it needs to be. If we have some things that we have to do to make it a better setting for high school athletics then we'll do them. I've gotten a few stories but everybody's sort of wide open with it."
"It was a competitive game," West principal Dean Jones, a former assistant principal at East, said. "The adults involved -- coaches and sheriff's deputies -- stepped in quickly to stop it from becoming a bigger situation."
A Corliss 3-pointer gave the Falcons their largest lead of then night, at 50-40, with 4:29 remaining. East closed the gap to 57-56 on a Chase Hill 3 with 1:02 to play.
After a pair of Corliss free throws, his 12th straight points, East's Micheal Robinson (15 points) knifed down the lane for a layup. The Eagles then fouled Dallas Ducote, who hit 1-of-2 from the line, to set up the final play.
"Our philosophy on the road is if we have a chance to go for the win we're going to take it," said Johnston. "Our foul situation really tipped us to do that, our three perimeter players all had four fouls. "We had a good look. His defender slipped, Daniel ran at him but he had a good look. You never blame the game on one shot."
"You've got to give John a tremendous amount of credit," Bliss said.
"They've been up and down but his kids battled their guts out tonight. I think that speaks volumes about John and the character of his kids."
Corliss started slowly, collecting only two points on zero field goals in the first half. He scored 12 of his team-high 17 points in the fourth quarter and his foul shot with 3:04 to play notched his 1,000th career point.
"You try not to think about something like that," he said. "I made my first two foul shots and then I wasn't making any shots. The team stepped up.
"To tell you the truth it wouldn't really have mattered if we'd have lost tonight."
Ducote scored eight of his 17 points in the second quarter to help West build a 26-18 halftime lead. He grabbed five rebounds while Daniel Hyatt had seven.
Chase Hill scored a team-high 18 as the Eagles (4-16, 1-7) put four players -- Robinson (15), Nathan Roberts (11) and Chris Whiteside (10) -- in double figures.
East will host Pisgah on Tuesday while West will travel to Smoky Mountain.
Summary
BOYS
EAST HENDERSON (58) -- Dorn, Hill 18, Roberts 11, Justus 4, Robinson 15, McClure, Whiteside 10, Duermitt, Ford.
WEST HENDERSON (60) -- Roberts 8, Williams 2, James 4, Troutman 2, Corliss 17, Isgett, Barbour 1, Staggs, Hutchinson 6, Ducote 17, Hyatt 3.
Halftime: West, 26-18.
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Matter On the Front Page!
It's Matthew! On the front page of the paper last Wednesday. I didn't see it until the end of the day. He has a guy's arm in his face, but it is definitely him. I have extra copies if anyone needs them autographed ... haha! (If you click on the image it will open up bigger so you can see him better.)
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
West Beats Brevard ... Again
BREVARD -- Throughout this season, West Henderson boys basketball coach Rob Bliss hasn't had to worry about getting scoring from senior guard Zach Corliss. It has been finding a secondary scorer that has given Bliss fits.
Judging by his performance on Tuesday night, it seems as if Buddy Hutchinson is willing and able to step into that position.
Hutchinson went 5-of-6 from the field and scored 15 points as West Henderson (10-11, 4-3 WAC) came away from Brevard with a 61-53 win in a Western Athletic Conference matchup.
After a back-and-forth first half, Hutchinson caught fire early in the second half, scoring 10 of his 15 points during a key third quarter stretch that saw West Henderson expand its lead from 29-26 to 40-29 over the course of 4 1/2 minutes.
"Buddy made the most of his opportunities tonight. He has been in the scorer role for us a few games this year, and it is great to have him back in it," said Bliss.
Corliss led the Falcons in scoring with 20 points, going 6-of-9 from the field and 7-of-9 from the charity stripe. Corliss, who is now 14 points shy of his 1,000th career point, also dished out eight assists. Dallas Ducote also reached double figures for West with 11.
Brevard was led in scoring by A.J. Zandecki, who hustled his way to 17 points in the losing effort. The Blue Devils' leading scorer for the season, Brian Carrington, was held to just nine points.
"There is no secret that Brian is a strong scorer, but our kids did a great job of playing help-side defense on him tonight," said Bliss.
Summary
BOYS
WEST HENDERSON (61) -- Corliss 20, Hutchinson 15, Ducote 11, James 5, Trantham 4, Williams 2, Hyatt 2.
BREVARD (53) -- Zandecki 17, Muller 9, Carrington 9, Smith 6, Harris 6, Baker 5, Erwin 1.
Saturday, February 2, 2008
Bears sweep Falcons at West
Feb 2, 2008
By Joseph Chilton
Special to the Times-News
Pisgah guard Austin Moore drained a 3-pointer one minute into Friday night’s game between Pisgah and West Henderson to give his team a 3-0 lead. The visiting Black Bears would never trail for the remainder of the evening, as they rolled past West 74-53.
Pisgah (15-3, 5-1 WAC) came out firing, connecting on their first three long range attempts and jumping out to a 13-5 lead with 4:45 remaining in the first quarter. The Falcons (9-11, 3-3 WAC) slowly chipped away at the lead until a 3-pointer by Kevin Thomas tied the game 21-21 early in the second quarter.
That was as close to leading as the Falcons would get, however, as Pisgah responded with an 11-0 run over the next four minutes to push its lead to 32-21.
West would pull close again early in the third quarter, when a Zach Corliss 3-pointer narrowed the gap to 37-33. Pisgah fired back quickly again, however, this time with 9-0 run to push its lead back into double digits at 46-33.
In the fourth quarter, West spread its defense out trying to pressure the Black Bears, and Pisgah responded by splitting the defense for several point-blank-range scores.
“We went out of our norm and went into a scrambling defense late. We don’t do that usually, but when you’re down you have to take some chances. Unfortunately, that gave them some easy layups late in the game,” said West coach Rob Bliss, whose team gave up 38 points in the paint.
Corliss poured in 25 points, including four of West’s five 3s, but his scoring barrage was overshadowed by Pisgah’s balanced attack, which saw four players reach double figures.
Austin Moore and Zack Hollifield led Pisgah with 20 points apiece.
“Zach played hard, but we struggled to find other people to score with him,” said Bliss. “Our effort was there, but our execution was poor. We missed a lot of open looks.”
In the girls game, West led throughout until a furious fourth quarter comeback llowed Pisgah to come away from Mills River with a 57-50 victory.
The Lady Falcons led throughout the first three quarters of the game and carried a 34-27 lead into the fourth.
Pisgah’s Katie Hargrove scored 13 of her game-high 16 points in the final period, as Pisgah outscored West Henderson 30-16 in the fourth for the come-from-behind win.
Summer Kremer scored 13 points and Erica Cantrell added 10 in the losing effort for the Lady Falcons. Brittney Clark joined Hargrove in double figures for Pisgah with 14 points.
Pisgah moves to 10-8 overall and 5-1 in the WAC with the win, while West falls to 4-14 and 2-4.
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