WHS splits games with Huntland


Whitwell, TN – The Whitwell High School basketball program hosted one of the last local matchups before the holiday break and came away with a split, as the Lady Tigers came away with a 69-58 win an the Tigers endured a 70-51 loss to Huntland (AL). The women’s game proved to be a pretty good match up throughout much of game; whereas the men had a hard time coming back from halftime.

The Lady Tigers presented deceptive non-flashy ball play early. Both teams looked to a full court press early, in hopes of disrupting the other team. To the Lady Hornets’ credit, they seemingly had a plan for how to fight against the full press; however, the offensive plan near the basket seemed to be easy to disrupt by the Lady Tigers. Whereas WHS would come out on top 14-10 at the end of the first, it’s worth mentioning Lady Tiger Seneca Barnett sank a buzzer beater three pointer to close the quarter. Going into the half, WHS Coach Eric Zensen gave the green light for the long jumper as the lane became better defended. This appears to have been the right call since the Lady Tigers posted 15 of their 21 second quarter point from three-point range. Four of those came from Courtney Zensen. The Lady Hornets would take a different approach and continue banging into the paint. The Huntland team hit a run where they always earned the foul call and went 8-for-10 from the foul line, posting 20 points themselves. However, the Lady Tigers would still hold a 35-30 advantage at the half.  The third quarter was a reflection of the second quarter: the Lady Tigers would continue sinking threes (including three more for Zensen) and one by Addie Colvard. The Lady Hornets had some offense from the outside, but again enjoyed the confidence of having fouls called under the basket. Neither team was able to break away or catch up as the Lady Tigers held a 51-46 advantage going into the final quarter.

The fourth would find the Lady Tigers seeing some of the contact against them under the basket called as a foul. Being able to convert 14-of-17 free throws proved insurmountable to the Lady Hornets. The Lady Tigers posted a 69-58 victory. The win brought the team’s overall record to 11-3 and a 1-0 standing in district play.

The mens’ game was a gritty battle in the first the half. The Tigers would come away with the initial jump ball and draw first blood quickly. The Huntland Hornets were equally quick to issue a responding three-pointer. The Tigers would jump out to an 11-3 lead after that shot. However, Whitwell became very comfortable not fighting for defensive rebounds. That resulted in a number of Huntland put-backs, and they would close the gap to 18-14 by the end of the quarter. Despite the Tigers going 5-of-5 for their foul shots and a nice spreading around of the offensive responsibility between Holden Billingsley, Joseph Sradlin, Chance Atterton, Gabe Meadow and Ethan Hawk, the Hornets managed to edge out the Tigers in the second column to go into the half trailing the Tigers, 33-31. The Hornets would explode in the third from all over the floor and stack 25 points, while keeping the Tigers in single digits. Whereas the fourth quarter was far more of an exhibition of frustration for both teams with multiple technical fouls, the damage had been done. The Tigers were left to lick their wounds and prepare for their next opponent, with a 70-51 loss. The Tigers are still struggling to find their foothold this season. They currently sit at 0-7 overall and 0-1 in district play.

After the holidays, Whitwell will be hosting Lookout Valley on January 7, with the women starting at 5:30 p.m. and men scheduled to start at 7 p.m.. Later that week on January 9, Whitwell will host again against Chattanooga Christian with the same scheduled start times.

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