By Jeremy Trantham
Times-News Staff Writer
Published: Friday, December 11, 2009 at 11:20 p.m.
Photo by MIKE DIRKS/TIMES-NEWS
West Henderson's Matt Roberts guards North Henderson's Michael Roberts.
Just after Friday's game a member of the North Henderson coaching staff was writing the Appalachian Athletic Conference standings on the board in head coach Skip Taylor's office.
Thanks to some white-hot 3-point shooting, the Knights find themselves in a tie for first place as the 58-53 home win against rival West Henderson put them at 1-0 in the league. Colby Drake hit five of North's eight 3s to score a team-high 15 points.
West's girls outscored North 21-2 in the third quarter on their 46-33 victory to open AAC play.
"That's the best we've shot this year," Taylor said. "I think our stat sheet says we were 6 of 8 in the second half. It doesn't get much better than that. I'm extremely proud of them. We had some open shots and we hit them."
After trailing 25-18 at halftime, West closed the gap to two or fewer points six times. On five of those occasions, North responded with a 3.
None was larger than the one sophomore Michael Roberts hit with 1:42 to play. Roberts' shot gave the Knights a 51-46 lead.
Senior Cory Morgan scored the last seven points for North by going 7-for-8 from the foul line.
Senior Keenan Young had a second straight strong game for West with a game-high 18 points while junior Kevin Thomas added 15. But it wasn't enough to overcome the difference in 3-point shooting. The Falcons hit just one shot from deep.
"West is an awfully tough team," Taylor said. "This is a tough conference. They're really big inside and they have some athletes."
Roberts had 14 points while Morgan and Hunter Donaldson added 10 apiece for the Knights, who will host rival East Henderson on Tuesday.
"East is a very good basketball team, too," said Taylor. "I told the team that just because Hendersonville beat them by 40 and we lost to Hendersonville by 2, it matters not."
The Lady Falcons, who held a five-point halftime lead, came out and blitzed the Lady Knights in the third quarter.
West coach Robbie Lowrance said he too was happy to open conference play with a victory.
North hit zero field goals in the third as West built an insurmountable lead. Three Lady Falcons — Summer Kremer (13), Sieara Bishop (12) and Ashley Rogers (11) — scored in double figures.
"West just came out a little dead-legged in the third quarter," said North coach Kevin Rhodes. "That's something we can't do against a good team like West. I really don't have an excuse, West is just a good basketball team."
The Lady Knights were led by eight points and 10 rebounds from Jessica Hartley. Jodi Edwards added eight points while Ashley Brown had seven points and 10 rebounds.
West will host Smoky Mountain on Tuesday.
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