Pioneers fall

twice in weekend
By Daniel Clark
Special to the Democrat

The Watauga Pioneer boys basketball team dropped a pair of games over the weekend. Friday night the Pioneers fell in their Northwestern 4-A Conference home opener to Freedom 66-52. Saturday they fell 55-54 to Wilkes Central in a non-conference game.

The Pioneers (6-7, 1-1) were out rebounded by the Patriots 30-17 and turned the ball over 21 times in a sluggish game. Watauga trailed 21-16 at the break before out scoring the Patriots 21-13 in the third quarter.

Early into the fourth quarter things got a bit out of hand when Justin Michaux had a dunk attempt blocked by Adam Chiarolanzio out of bounds. Chiarolanzio, excited over the block let out a Rick Flair like, woo while clinching his arms and was promptly ejected for taunting at the 7:15 mark of the fourth and the game tied at 37-37.

Blake Moore, a Freedom guard had received a technical foul earlier in the game for unsportsman-like language. The Patriots went on to outscore the Pioneers 32-15 in the fourth for the win.

Freedom was lead in scoring by Ethan Kincaid with 13. Chad Eppley paced the Pioneers with 15.

Saturday, the Pioneers and Wilkes Central battled to seven ties and 18 lead changes. The Eagles lead by as many as nine in the first half.

In a seesaw game down the stretch, the Pioneers had the ball with one minute to go in the fourth up 54-53 when Eagle guard Kareem Newkirk slapped the ball out of David Isaacs hands, and it rolled out of bounds with Newkirk diving after it. The officials awarded the ball to the Eagles and Newkirk was fouled on ensuing possession.

He hit both free throws with 18 seconds remaining. On the Pioneers’ final possession, Chad Eppley threw up the 17 foot fade away and tip tries by Will Watson and Alan Herndon fell short, giving the Eagles the win.

“Bottom line is they just out worked us, they got to every loose ball, they got four looks every offensive possession,” Pioneers coach Rob Sanders said. “If we had to point one finger on what’s wrong right now, its that we are giving teams to many good looks per possession and not making it a priority to box out.”

Roddy Bridges lead the Eagles with 24 points, while Newkirk added 13. Watauga was lead by Watson with 16 and Ian Dale with 12.

Watauga returns to action Tuesday night hosting McDowell at Lentz-Eggers gym.

“We told our guys that its time to fix things, we are one and one in the league and we need to be physically and mentally prepared for McDowell because for all intensive purposes our season starts Tuesday,” said Sanders. “This is a team I love to coach, that what makes it so difficult to see us play the way we are. As long as this team has some fight in them, we are going to show up everyday and work so we can turn this thing around.”