Tigers too much to handle for Armuchee

♦ Darlington builds big lead early to continue impressive season, finish region play unbeaten

It’s hard to stop a team when one or two players get on a roll offensively.

Imagine trying to stop a whole team that’s on a roll.

That was the task the Armuchee Indians faced on Friday, and the red-hot Darlington Tigers wasted no time in delivering the knockout blow, grabbing a 23-point lead in the first quarter on their way to a 72-32 win.

The No. 5-ranked Tigers improved to 21-3 overall and a perfect 14-0 in Region 7-A Division I. Darlington will have the top seed in the region heading into next week’s region tournament and also an automatic berth into the state tournament.

“When you face a team as talented and as well-coached as Darlington, you can’t give them any kind of advantage. We spotted them an early lead and it’s hard to catch up after that,” said Armuchee head coach Clint Decker. “I don’t know if they have one player who is ‘The Guy’ on offense… they have four or five or six guys who can be ‘The Guy’ on any given night, and it’s hard to guard a team like that.”

The Tigers used a lethal combination of pressure defense and deadly-accurate 3-point shooting to run out to an early lead and all but secure the win after the opening eight minutes. Darlington got three steals and lay-ups from their full-court pressure in that opening quarter, in addition to connecting on six 3-point bombs.

The Indians (3-18, 3-11) could only muster one layup and two free throws in the quarter, and trailed 27-4 at the end of the period.

“We teach our guys that defense always travels, and we have to do a good job on the defensive end every night. That will usually lead to a lot of transition baskets,” said Darlington head coach Nathan West. “I thought tonight, our guys played very unselfishly, and multiple guys scored for us. The great thing about it is that nobody on our team cares who gets the points, they just feed off each other and play well together.

“I thought all our guys played well tonight,” West added. “I thought we attacked Armuchee’s zone really well, and we had a lot of success from the inside out. We always try to get off to a really good start, and we did that tonight and got a big lead.”

The Indians regrouped at the end of that first quarter and found a little bit of rhythm on offense. Sophomore Trenton Cothran nailed a trio of 3-pointers, keeping Armuchee within shouting distance, but Darlington closed the quarter with a flurry of points. An 11-0 run was fueled by a 3-pointer from Asa Shepard, another one by Charlie Shaw, and a lay-up and 3-pointer by Brent Bell.

A half-court heave by Armuchee’s Jordan Joyce at the buzzer ended the Tigers run, but the damage was done and Darlington led 5220 at the break.

The score was 61-29 after three quarters, and the Tigers only allowed one field goal in the fourth quarter to wrap up the big win.

All 14 Darlington players got into the game and 11 of them scored, led by Brent Bell’s 12 points. Braden Bell and Shaw each scored nine points, and Szymon Paluch added eight. The Tigers connected on 13 3-point shots in the game.

Only four players scored for the Indians led by Cothran’s 16 points.

At halftime, Armuchee honored Joyce, the lone senior on the team, who reached the 500-career rebound mark in the first half of the game. And despite his team’s regularseason record, Decker said his team’s focus will be on playing their best basketball in next week’s region tournament.

“We have lost a lot of close games this year, but our message all season has been to focus on this ‘third season’ and make sure we play our best basketball and make sure our guys still believe in each other,” Decker said.

For West, he said the challenge for his team is how to adjust to the week off between games. The semifinals of the region tournament won’t be until next Saturday.

“It can almost be a disadvantage, when you go a week without playing, because you’ve been in a routine of playing every few days consistently all season,” he said. “We just have to have a mature approach to it, understand the big picture, and have some intensity to our practices this week and just stay focused on getting better.”

Armuchee will open the tournament with a matchup against Coosa on Wednesday at 8:30 p.m.