Ashe pulls

away to win
By Steve Behr

WEST JEFFERSON — Once Ashe County took the lead from Watauga, the Huskies made sure they would never give it away.

Ashe County took the lead from the first two baskets of the game and never let Watauga catch up in its 53-40 victory over the Pioneers Friday night. Ashe County took a 4-0 lead, stretched it to 20-8 by the end of the first quarter, and didn’t let the Pioneers get any closer than six points the rest of the game.

Sarah Miller got the Pioneers off to a good start by scoring six of the Pioneers’ eight first-quarter points.

Ryann Jones scored the other two.

“(Miller) kept us in it early with some transition baskets,” Watauga coach Klay Anderson said. “I thought we got good energy out of Katherine Mayhew, but she got into foul trouble and couldn’t stay in the game. That hurt us. I thought that if she could have stay in there longer in the first half, it could have been closer.”

Watauga did not help itself early by committing 11 turnovers in the first quarter. That number ended up being half of the 22 the Pioneers would commit the entire game.

Ashe County did a slightly better job of taking care of the ball by turning it over just 16 times. Ashe also did a better job of hitting foul shots, making 10-of-12 compared to 3-of-7 foul shooting by the Pioneers.

“There’s no question to me, the turnovers in the first half did us in,” Anderson said. “When you have two good basketball teams, as I think we both are, if you don’t bring your ‘A’ game, you’re going to be in trouble. They put us in an eight-point hole and we just couldn’t dig ourselves out of it.”

Watauga got another double-double by center Nicole Tesh, who scored 15 points and pulled down 13 rebounds. Christina Rees added 10 points, including two 3-pointers.

Ashe County got 11 points from Kim McNeil and 10 points from Kendra Yearick. Mallory Clay added eight points and pulled down a team-high six rebounds.

There were few points and plenty of rebounds to be had in the fourth quarter. After McNeil scored with 7:34 left, neither team put any points on the board until Rees knocked down a jumper with 1:52 left.

Ashe County broke its scoring slump with a Church basket with 1:36 left, and the Huskies closed out the game with Church making four straight foul shots.

Watauga got a 3-pointer from Rees and a 3-pointer from Jones to close out its scoring.

The Pioneers return to the court Monday night at Avery County. They’ll turn around and host the Vikings Wednesday night at Lentz-Eggers Gym.

Ashe County 53, Watauga 40
Watauga (4-3)
Gilliam 1 0-0 2, Tesh 7 1-3 15, Jones 2 0-0 5, Mayhew 0 2-2 2, Miller 3 0-1 6, Rees 4 0-1 10, Corbin 0 0-0 0, Butler 0 0-0 0, Dunnigan 0 0-0 0, McKinney 0 0-0 0, Wright 0 0-0 0, Alford 0 0-0 0, Corbin 0 0-0 0. Totals 17 3-7 40.
Ashe County
Hanes 2 1-1 5, Johnson 1 0-0 2, Clay 3 2-3 8, Church 1 4-4 6, Christiansen 1 0-0 2, Yearick 4 0-0 10, McNeil 5 1-2 11, Barker 2 0-0 4, Elliott 0 2-2 2, McVey 1 0-0 3. Totals 20 10-12 53.
Watauga 8 13 11 8 — 40
Ashe County 20 9 16 8 — 53
3-point goals—Watauga 3 (Rees 2, Jones); Ashe 3 (Yearick 2, McVey). Rebounds—Watauga 26 (Tesh 13); Ashe 29 (Clay 6). Turnovers—Watauga 22, Ashe 16. Total fouls—Watauga 16, Ashe 9. Fouled out—None. Technical fouls—None.