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

By Jeremy Trantham
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.