It was the first game of the high school basketball season and you could tell if you watched Tyner’s game at East Hamilton Tuesday night.
Both teams have lots of new faces and both are still trying to find the right combinations, but as you might expect in the opening game, there were a lot of unforced errors, silly turnovers and an excess amount of fouls.
Can’t say anything bad about the effort as both teams battled for the entire 48 minutes before the Rams headed back home with the 54-50 victory.
It was a Hall of Champions game where coaches don’t have to count wins and losses if they so desire, but both said they would count them as such.
“We came over here tonight with the goal of just getting better. I knew we’d be rusty as yesterday was the first day for our football players, but we won and I’m happy about the effort my guys gave,” said Tyner coach Ejay Ward following the hard-fought contest.
“We got up early, but I knew that East Hamilton would come back and they did. I thought we did some really good things down the stretch and that’s where Kobe Smith took charge. But we’ve got to get better and we’re still working on developing chemistry, but I told our guys that if we played hard from start to finish, the scoreboard would take care of itself.
“We’re still missing a couple of guys who are hurt right now, but we’ll be okay on down the road,” Ward nodded.
Tyner opened the game with a 7-1 run in the first half of the first quarter and the lead was 14-5 when the first stanza ended.
Ian Shropshire scored on a layup to open the second stanza as the Hurricanes got to within 14-7, but the Rams scored nine of the next 11 points for a 23-9 lead with 3:21 left before intermission.
That’s when the home team picked up the pace.
Making seven of eight free throws in the next two minutes, the Hurricanes got within three at 23-20 following two charity tosses by Darwin Randolph just inside the final minute of the half.
Melique Hambrick, one of those football players Ward was referring to, canned a 3 from the wing in the final 10 seconds to give Tyner a 26-20 lead at the break.
The Hurricanes had their best run to start the second half as Shropshire’s drive down the lane gave the hosts their first lead of the game at 30-28 with 3:48 left in the third.
Alan Karajic sank the second of two free throws with 1:41 left to give East Hamilton its final lead at 33-32 as Tyner scored nine straight points in the next four minutes and were never threatened again as back-to-back buckets by Kobe Smith stretched Tyner’s lead to 48-39 with 3:33 to play.
Jordan Harris scored on a putback with 23 seconds left to get East Hamilton within three at 53-50 before Kam Dozier hit the first of two free throws with 15.8 seconds left for the final four-point margin of victory.
It was a positive experience for the most part for East Hamilton’s first-year coach Andrew Webb.
“That’s the most I’ve yelled in a really long time,” he began his post-game comments.
“It’s early and we don’t have a lot of game experience, but I just wanted my guys to play hard and together. I thought we started off a little bit timid and it might take us a little while to get things worked out, but we had great effort.
“We want to play at a fast pace and that will come, but I thought we took some good shots despite only hitting one of 13 from long range. I thought we stepped up in the second half, but Tyner’s athletic ability hurt us at the end,” Webb nodded.
Smith finished with 17 points to lead the Rams, including 13 points in the fourth quarter when the game was on the line. Hambrick was next with 11 while Tony Jackson ended the evening with eight points.
Randolph was the only East Hamilton player in double figures as he finished with 20 points. Marcus Long followed with nine before fouling out late.
East Hamilton had an unofficial 34-28 advantage on the boards as Randolph, Long and Haynes Eller all claimed seven apiece for the Hurricanes. Jackson had seven and Smith six for the Rams.
EAST HAMILTON GIRLS 67, TYNER 28: The Lady Canes were never threatened as they raced to a 31-5 lead after one quarter.
Senior standout Madison Hayes, who recently committed to play at Mississippi State, had 20 points in the first half alone as the difference was 49-13 at intermission.
Hayes finished with 26 points while younger sister McKenna Hayes added 17 and Dezah Lacy 12 for the winners.
Keonna Ratliff had 10 points to lead Tyner while Jermiah McKenzie added nine points, all from long range.
GIRLS SUMMARY
TYNER 5 8 7 8 -- 28
EAST HAMILTON 31 18 16 2 -- 67
TYNER (28) – Ratliff 10, Camp 4, Long, Thomas 1, Crumsey, Cosey 4, McCullough, McKenzie 9.
EAST HAMILTON (67) – Strickland, Evans 5, Lacy 12, Seder, Copeland 2, Madison Hayes 26, McKenna Hayes 17, Choudree, Bone, Petitt, Sue, Davis, Laboo 5.
3-POINT GOALS: Tyner 3 (McKenzie 3); East Hamilton 7 (Evans, Mad. Hayes, McK Hayes 5).
BOYS SUMMARY
TYNER 14 12 9 19 -- 54
EAST HAMILTON 5 15 13 17 -- 50
TYNER (54) – Smith 17, T. Jackson 8, Dillard 6, Hambrick 11, Melton, Dozier 1, Holloway 3, Porter, Conyers 6, A. Sims, Bloodsaw, K. Jackson, J. Sims 2.
EAST HAMILTON (50) – Randolph 20, Shropshire 6, Long 9, Pendleton 4, Rogers, Harris 6, Eller 2, Ellis-Swafford 2, Scruggs, Caudle, Karajic 1.
3-POINT GOALS: Tyner 4 (Hambrick 3, Holloway); East Hamilton 1 (Long).
(Email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)