Red Devils dam up Beavers
HASKELL — Josh Walpole dominated the court for Mountain Pine as the Red Devils rolled to a 57-36 win over Glen Rose Monday night at the Bill Gibbs Memorial Tournament at Daniel Henley Fieldhouse.
Walpole finished with 19 points, nine rebounds, four steals and four assists to lead the Red Devils (2-0) in each statistical category in the game.
“We’re two weeks in,” said Mountain Pine head coach LaMont Page. “A lot of these kids, even during football season, they play basketball.
“A lot of it’s just from being in the program, being familiar. Mountain Pine, before I got there, had three coaches in four years, so it was hard to get a rhythm and a flow and camaraderie. I think, going into my third year, I’m getting that now because it looks like we’ve been together more than two weeks.”
The Red Devils struggled to sink shots early, putting up just five points in the opening 3:15 of the game on 11 percent shooting, but they quickly got on track to finish out the
quarter with an 18-4 lead, holding Glen Rose
(0-3) to just 15.4 percent from the floor. “I thought they played with more effort and more energy and set the tempo kind of early,” said Glen Rose head coach Devin Jones. “I don’t think we responded very well.”
Mountain Pine shot 50 percent from the floor in the second quarter en route to a 33-15 lead after taking a 21-6 lead in the first 53 seconds of the period. With a 15-point edge with
5:24 remaining, the Red Devils rolled on a 8-4 run to pull to a 31-12 lead with 3:15 to go until halftime. Both teams’ shooting cooled in the waning minutes of the half, with Glen Rose making the lone bucket in the final three minutes as the teams combined for 11.1 percent.
The Red Devils came out firing in the third frame, but they could not make a shot fall from the floor until Trey Zander nailed a trey near the 4:00 mark. Glen Rose made a run late in the quarter, pulling within 44-22 going into the final eight minutes.
The Beavers used the momentum from the third period to pull within 12 with just
2:37 off the clock in the final period with three-pointers by Brendan Hill and Brayden Lyons helping to cut the spread.
“We started playing defense, and when we started playing defense, they started missing shots,” Jones said. “We were able to get out and run a little bit. You can’t really get the ball out and run when the ball’s going through the net every time. You’ve got to be able to play defense to do that.”
Mountain Pine stretched the lead out to
50-32 with 3:10 to go before closing out the game on a 7-4 run.
“We had four points tonight — four points of emphasis,” Page said. “It was free throws, less turnovers, defense and rebounds. When we didn’t defend and we didn’t rebound, they got back in it. We missed free throws, and they got back in the game. We turned the ball over, and they got back in the game. Once we shored those points up, then we played better.
“They gave us a run at the end, and I’m really happy at the way we responded. We didn’t fall apart. We took a punch, and we came back.”
Dylan Munson added 15 for the Red Devils with a pair of treys, two steals, an assist and a rebound. Elijah Browning finished with eight rebounds and an assist.
Lyons led the Beavers with 13 points, three rebounds and an assist, Ahmad Holmes had eight points four steals, three rebounds and an assist, and Jace Haynes had five steals, three rebounds and an assist.
Mountain Pine will face the winner of Tuesday’s late game between Haskell-Harmony Grove and Poyen Thursday at 7:45 p.m. Glen Rose will face the loser of the game tonight at 7:45 p.m.