Critical Moments: Whites Creek vs. Clarksville Northeast
Clarksville Northeast (13-3) dipped in to Nashville Wednesday night. They left with a 66-50 win over hosts Whites Creek (8-6). A handful of critical moments defined the outcome. Frankly, the third quarter truly separated the two squads.
“We kept the ball out of the paint defensively,” said Northeast Head Coach John Stigall.
Disruption
Two guards gave Northeast wonderful deflections late in the first quarter. Both exceedingly quick with their feet and hands, Jaleel Fletcher and Quinton Cross caused really problems. They served as gatekeepers to the lane. Though Dennis Stallings did craft a path in there several times most of the night the guard sentinels slid and prevented penetration.
“Fletcher is one of our better defenders,” said Northeast Coach Stigall. “He is long. He is disciplined. He has really good feet. I thought he did a really good job on #4 (Dennis Stallings) tonight. Number 4 did get some things. He is a good player. I thought Fletcher did a really good job on #4 the rest of the night.”
Northeast successfully trapped the wings and took away passing lanes. The defense almost encouraged dribbling and passing into the corners, where they intensely jumped with two bodies.
Press Break
Whites Creek suffered countless secondary fast breaks.
“When we didn’t get sped up I thought we did our job,” said Head Coach Stigall. “We took our time. We like to play a little faster. I think against teams that play a little faster we tend to want to play with that same mindset. We are running right in to things we aren’t supposed to run into. Once we slowed down I thought we did a pretty good job.”
Helping Hand
Sophomore Chad Haywood buried pull-up after pull-up. Individually he was the sharpest Cobra in the halfcourt in the second half.
Whites Creek hosting Northeast https://t.co/KwHloHAwHP
— Prep Hoops Tennessee (@PrepHoopsTN) January 4, 2018
Haywood finished with 11 points on 62.5% (5-8) shooting. The lefty continues to create problems with his dribble and evasiveness.
Another sophomore Dylan Wade couldn’t find room over collapsing Eagle defenders.
Dylan struggled tonight,” said Coach Battle. “He is second-guessing himself. A lot of times I want him to just pull-up and shoot that basketball. He told us, ‘Coach I’m off.’ I said I’d rather have you shoot off and hopefully we get the rebounds.”
Wade finished with 10 points on 36.3% shooting.
Again Stallings slashed well, but simply missed the floaters he usually hits.
Star Report
Alec Kegler provided a key outlet in the press break, but also scored a little. He gave 14 points to the cause. Stephen Daugherty scored 19 points to lead the Eagles.
“Alec, he didn’t have a big game scoring-wise, but he rebounded the ball well and I thought he handled it in the middle of the press really, really big,” said Northeast Head Coach Stigall.
Over and over WCHS senior Dennis Stallings burst his way to a decent shot only to see it narrowly miss. The lefty created space with his quickness and elevated knee. The senior scored just 11 points on 4-12 shooting.
Was it the help defender that knocked Stallings’ shot offline? Was it just an off night?
Most alarming about Stallings’ play is the zero free throw attempts. He did not force the opposition to foul to stop him.
Head Coach Carlton Battle saw some rust from his players.
“I was worried about that coming off breaks,” said Coach Battle. “It basically takes two days to get out of shape. Over the course of Christmas break and New Year’s we took more than that on and off. That is a hard thing to do. We scheduled this game to get ready for District.”
Whites Creek hosts MLK Friday night and Northeast returns to action next Tuesday at Springfield.
What can Whites Creek Coach Battle expect from his Cobras in District play?
“I don’t know,” said Coach Battle. “We are still waiting to see. But I will tell you what. First round matchup still nobody is going to want to matchup with Whites Creek. They are going to want another opponent because we play our best basketball at the end.”
Follow @PrepHoopsTN for the best boys basketball coverage statewide.