JOHNSON CITY – Chuckey-Doak and University High went back and forth all night long in a game with 14 lead changes while neither team ever led by more than eight points.
It was the Black Knights who took the lead last on Thursday when Cadin Tullock put back a miss with three seconds left for a 67-65 victory that spoiled senior night at Brooks Memorial Gymnasium on the Campus of ETSU.
Thursday’s fourth quarter started with University High leading 50-49, but Chuckey-Doak quickly remedied that. With 6:27 left Tullock stole the ball on one end of the floor and set up Dillon Shelton for a fast break layup on the other for a 53-52 lead.
Tullock scored on another breakaway after receiving a baseball pass from Christian Derry. He was fouled on the play and made the free toss to grow the lead to 56-52.
Chuckey-Doak’s biggest lead of the night came with 3:28 left to play when Derry tapped one off the glass for a 62-54 advantage.
University High answered with six points in 43 seconds, including four from Drew Finney to close the gap to 62-60.
Andrew Cole then narrowed the margin to 64-63 when he knocked down a triple from the top of the key.
After a series of turnovers and empty possessions the Buccaneers tied things at 65-65 with 18 seconds left when A.J. Murphy dropped in a contested jumper from the lane.
Chuckey-Doak was able to grab two offensive rebounds on the final possession. First Ethan Grindstaff pulled down a missed three-pointer by Shelton. His shot that followed was off the mark, but Tullock slipped into space left of the hoop to grab the second miss and he put it back up from under the rim for what proved to be the game winner.
Thursday’s action started with the Buccaneers taking a 5-0 lead, but then Tullock scored in transition twice before Isaiah Treadway gave the Knight their first lead at 6-5.
The teams then alternated taking the lead six times before the Bucs got a layup from Pete Boywewicz and a triple from Murphy in the final 24 seconds of the quarter to take a 16-12 lead.
Tullock knocked down a pair of triples in the first 1:18 of the second quarter and Chuckey-Doak briefly regained the lead at 20-18 when Grindstaff got ahead of the defense in transition.
Over the next three minutes the lead went back and forth until Treadway sank a jumper from the top of the key to put the Knights in front 25-23.
Treadway then went the length of the floor for a lay in and followed with a put back through contact that turned into three points and a 32-25 Black Knights’ lead.
Cole finished the first half with three-pointer just before the buzzer for University High as Chukcey-Doak’s advantage shrank to 32-30.
In the early portion of the third quarter the Black Knights went to big man Christian Derry on the inside and he powered home eight points as the lead stretched to 42-35 with 4:42 left in the frame.
Derry had to battle through contact all night on Thursday as the Bucs threw double a triple teams at him every time he touched the ball in the paint. Despite that he scored 22 points in the paint as part of his team-high, 23-point effort. He only drew one foul call despite the physical play, and it came with 39 seconds left in the game.
Boywewicz got University High going with an old-fashioned-three-point play, and then with 2:15 left in the third quarter he put his side in front at 45-44 by putting back an offensive rebound.
The Bucs’ lead grew to 50-46 when Cole hit a three-pointer, but Brock Rush finished out the period with a triple for the Knights to make it 50-49.
Derry led all scorers with 23 points, Tullock finished 20 for Chuckey-Doak and Treadway had 12.
Cole scored 20 points for University High, Boywewicz had 13 and Murphy 11
Chuckey-Doak 12 20 17 18 67
University High 16 14 20 65
Chuckey-Doak: Derry 23, Tullock 20, Treadway 12, Shelton 7, Rush 3, Grindstaff 2
University High: Cole 20, Boywewicz 13, Muphy 11, Finney 8, Carter 5, Weems 3, Cole 3, Noland 2
GIRLS
Chuckey-Doak 54, University High 20
The Chuckey-Doak girls got everyone involved on Thursday night as they took down University High 54-20.
All 13 players on the roster got extended minutes in the win and 11 of them scored as the Lady Knights make final preparations for the postseason, which begins next week. Kennedy Brown led the way with 14 points for Chuckey-Doak.
“It was a good win, we set out to play a lot of people and we got to do that,” Chuckey-Doak coach Kyle Donahue said. “It’s good to get everyone minutes because you never know what is going to happen in the tournament. You can’t reproduce that playing time in practice. It’s good to see the girls cheering for each other, and it’s good to see a lot of girls scoring.”
Things were not exactly pretty early for Chuckey-Doak, but it did manage to score the first five points of the night. Hayleigh Taylor and Saniah Atchison each put in layups while Brown made a free throw.
The lead grew to 11-2 when Taliah Johnson led the fast break before setting up Adyson Ripley for a bucket. The quarter closed with Chuckey-Doak leading 11-5.
Chuckey-Doak started the second quarter on an 8-0 run in which Courtnee Jones sank a pair of mid-range jumpers.
Vania Ortiz broke the streak for the Lady Bucs, but then Tavyn Southerland and Brown both scored in transition to push the Lady Knights’ advantage to 24-7.
The transition buckets kept coming for Chuckey-Doak as Johnson set up Taylor and Brown after forcing turnovers. All night long Johnson sparked Chuckey-Doak’s offense by applying pressure and forcing turnovers on one end of the floor and then setting up her teammates on the other end.
“We try to preach that it’s not all about scoring,” Donahue said. “We need a complete game whether its assists or rebounds or scoring, we need people that can bring all of those things to the table. I thought Taliah played really well. She did a lot of good things on offense. She got our break started and that was valuable for easy buckets.”
Chuckey-Doak went to halftime leading 30-9.
In the third quarter Chuckey-Doak’s defense got even tougher and did not allow a field goal for over seven minutes.
“I liked our effort after we came out of halftime. We made a concerted effort to sit in the gap and move our feet. I think we did that really well in the second half,” Donahue said.
On offense Johnson knocked down a three-pointer and then turned a steal into two points for the Lady Knights. The lead grew to 30 points with 4:40 left in the third quarter when Atchison made a pair of free throws that made the score 39-9.
The quarter closed with Brown sinking a three-pointer from deep in the corner to give Chuckey-Doak a 49-12 advantage.
With the clock running in the fourth quarter University High scored the first eight points of the period, but then Bri Lowe finished strong for Chuckey-Doak with a pair of buckets in the final two minutes for a 54-20 Lady Knights’ lead.
Chuckey-Doak has one more game left in the regular season, against Hampton on Saturday, and then the District 1-2A Tournament will begin on February 16 with the Lady Knights taking on Happy Valley.
Chuckey-Doak 12 18 19 5 54
University High 5 4 3 8 20
Chuckey-Doak: Brown 14, Atchison 7, Johnson6, Jones 6, Yokley 4, Taylor 4, Lowe 4, Ripley 4, Southerland 2, Hensly 2, Bishop 1
University High: Ortiz 8, Lewis 3, Hughes 3, Joyner 2, Chandley 2, Stonal 2
