Chuckey-Doak Head Coach Kyle Donahue celebrated his birthday on Friday night with a 73-44 Lady Black Knight win over district rival Johnson County.
“It feels good. It feels good to be loved by a lot of people and it was a good night,” Coach Donahue said.
What’s even better than getting a win? Having every player on your roster score. A dozen different players stepped on the court and a dozen different players added points to the scoreboard in the victory.
“It’s good because the people on the bench work just as hard,” Donahue expressed. “I try to get them in and try to get some things going so it’s good to see them get excited about scoring and it’s good to see our teammates get excited about their teammates scoring. They were super supportive of each other and that’s the sign of a good team.”
One big component to winning basketball games is to win the rebounding margin. Multiple offensive rebounds helped Chuckey-Doak push out to an early lead. Faith Yokley followed her own missed three-pointer and spotted up from the free-throw line for a second chance bucket in the mid-range. The Lady Knights continued scoring second chance buckets with Kennedy Brown putting a layup through the net on an offensive rebound.
Tavyn Southerland also got the next basket to fall along the baseline for Chuckey-Doak.
Johnson County tied the game at 7-7 with a layup from Aubree Glenn and a jumper from Brookanna Hutchins.
Taliah Johnson was sneaky on defense throughout the first quarter with a total of five steals in the quarter. One of those turned into two points with a wide-open fast break layup.
The Lady Knights led 11-8 after the first period.
They started to run away with the lead once Kennedy Brown drained a long corner two to start the second quarter. Saniah Atchison stole a pass in the middle of a press and dished it off to Adyson Ripley for a layup. Ripley then pushed through contact to get the layup to fall and was rewarded with a free throw after to complete a three-point play.
Hutchins splashed a three-point basket from beyond the arc for Johnson County and Desirea Robinson knocked down a deep two-point shot with her toe on the line.
The Lady Knights extended their lead to 25-15 with a transition layup from Hayleigh Hensley and a mid-range bank shot from Courtnee Jones.
Chuckey-Doak held a 29-19 lead at the break.
Yokley and Hayleigh Taylor got the second half started with two layups in transition for Chuckey-Doak.
It took Johnson County three and a half minutes to get a field goal to drop in the second half. Once they were able to get the lid off the rim Emma Eller drove to the basket and put the ball off the glass for a tough layup with a foul. The free throw afterwards wouldn’t be made.
Hensley muscled her way up through two Lady Longhorn defenders for a layup.
Then Jones heated up from outside and scored five-straight points for the Lady Knights to help give them a larger lead. A layup down low was followed by a three-point bomb. She led the Lady Knights in scoring with 13 points on Friday.
“Courtnee Jones came alive tonight. We’ve been talking about when you get in contribute to the greater good. Everybody’s going to get into the game and we’ve got to keep moving forward and when you get your shot take full advantage of it and I thought she did that tonight,” Donahue mentioned.
Ripley and Atchison finished the third quarter with a layup each. The lead grew to 22 points at 52-30 entering the fourth quarter.
The Lady Knights ran away with the score in the final frame and shared the wealth around to everybody.
Macy Cox entered the game and sprinted ahead of the defense for a layup in transition. Johnson recorded another steal and took it home for a layup. The glass was kind to Chuckey-Doak in the fourth quarter as Taylor made a back door cut to the basket that resulted in another layup off an assist from Yokley.
Bri Lowe went two-for-two on free throws and Montze Trejo made a layup to put every Lady Black Knight player in the scoring column.
Chuckey-Doak ran away in the fourth quarter with a 73-44 win to defend their home territory.
The win boosts Chuckey-Doak’s conference record to 6-1 heading into their final showdown with South Greene.
Courtnee Jones led them in scoring with 13 points. Hayleigh Taylor produced 12 points and Kennedy Brown added 11 points.
Brookanna Hutchins led all scorers with 24 points for Johnson County.
BOYS
Johnson County 48, Chuckey-Doak 40
The Johnson County Longhorns made the long road trip down to Lower Afton on Friday night and took home a 48-40 victory over the home standing Chuckey-Doak Black Knights.
“You can put this one on me,” Black Knights Head Coach Sam Broyles said. “Tonight came down to coaching and the players didn’t execute and that comes back to me as the head coach.”
It was a low scoring affair with both defenses strapping up and putting their hard hats on in a physical ball game. The Longhorns were able to hold the Black Knights to only fourteen points in the second half and only four total in the third quarter.
“We’re a lot better than that offensively. Poor night shooting, turnovers, and didn’t do a good job adjusting in the second half and that goes back to me,” Broyles mentioned.
With South Greene picking up a win over Happy Valley on Friday night, the loss moves Chuckey-Doak out of first place in the conference and puts them at 5-2 overall sitting in sole second place behind the Rebels.
Johnson County's Conner Simcox landed the first punch with a quick turnaround in the paint over Christian Derry.
Isaiah Treadway banked in a turnaround fade away in transition and Dillon Shelton followed that with a layup to propel Chuckey-Doak into the lead.
Cadin Tullock landed a smooth mid-range jumper through the net. Then Derry scored four-straight in the paint and Ethan Grindstaff cut straight through the lane for an athletic finish at the rim to put the Knights ahead 12-2 in the early going.
Johnson County slowly started erasing their deficit with back-to-back triples from Austin West and Dalton Robinson.
Chuckey-Doak’s lead sat at 12-8 at the end of the first quarter.
Graham Reece fired away with another three-pointer for the Longhorns to cut it down to one point.
The Black Knights started heating up and grew their lead thanks to a spark from Ethan Grindstaff.
Grindstaff nailed a three-point shot in response and fought for an offensive put back to keep Chuckey-Doak out of danger. He kept finding ways to put points on the board with a quick pass off to Derry in the post for a layup. Cadin Tullock spotted up from downtown with a three-point bucket next.
Eli Dickens drained another trey for Johnson County. All four of their three-pointers in the first half came from the hands of four different players.
Luke Myers came away with a steal on defense and pushed the ball up court to Tullock for a layup.
Peyton Pavusek got behind the defense on a back door cut that opened up an opportunity for him to lay it in for two.
Both teams headed into the locker rooms with Chuckey-Doak ahead 26-20.
Conner Simcox closed the gap to four points with a quick drop-step layup to start the third quarter.
The Knights had trouble scoring in the third quarter and couldn’t seem to find the bottom of the net. Christian Derry helped put some points on the board with a quick offensive put back.
Pavusek made things interesting and tied the game at 30-30 with a wide-open layup after a baseline cut. Skylar Lawson helped give Johnson County its first lead since the opening bucket with a free throw.
Dalton Robinson sank his second three-point shot of the contest to give them a two-possession lead.
The third quarter would prove to be the most pivotal quarter of the game as Johnson County outscored Chuckey-Doak 16-4 in the frame to take a 36-30 lead heading into the final eight minutes.
To start the fourth quarter Tullock swatted a shot in the air and turned that block into two points with Grindstaff finishing at the rim. Derry used his post skills in the paint to provide another bucket.
The Longhorn's Simcox slid through two defenders in the paint for a clutch layup in crunch time. The Longhorns milked the clock for the final two minutes of the game to try to thwart a Black Knight comeback and kept the ball out of their hands. Skylar Lawson’s layup with 45 seconds left would seal the deal.
Chuckey-Doak’s final couple of shots wouldn’t fall and Johnson County was able to pull away with free throws from Simcox and Reece.
The Longhorns marched into Lower Afton and threw a wrench in the District 1-2A conference by taking home a 48-40 win over the Black Knights.
Conner Simcox led them with 13 points. Christian Derry scored a game-high 14 points.
