Washington County Enterprise-Leader
Cards give Huntsville 32 minutes of pounding hailstones
FARMINGTON — The Eagles have crash landed.
Frustrated on both offense and defense, Huntsville’s boys basketball team resorted to fouling and Farmington junior guard Layne Taylor made them pay by knocking down 18 of 20 free throws on the way to scoring a game-high 38 points in the Cardinals’ 80-51 romp in a rescheduled game at Cardinal Arena on Saturday, Feb. 4.
“He got going in the first half and he outscored them. He had 23, they had 18 [at halftime], so obviously he made a statement tonight because when we played at Huntsville he didn’t shoot it great, didn’t play great,” said Farmington coach Johnny Taylor. “Tonight, I thought their kids just started trying to have hard fouls and things that weren’t basketball-related and when that happened I knew we were going to win the game.”
The Cardinals built a 16-9 lead at the end of the first quarter. Layne Taylor took a shot while driving to the basket in the second quarter and his father, Johnny Taylor, subbed him out.
BERRY PLAYS TOUGH
With Layne Taylor on the bench, Farmington ran its offense through Jaxon Berry. He danced across the lane and put down a floater, then beat his man off the dribble. Amos Mayes scored for Huntsville and the Eagles got the ball back but Berry drove through traffic and delivered a thunderous slam that fired up Farmington fans. Berry’s flurry ignited a 15-2 Cardinal run to close out the half.
“Jaxon Berry, he’s had some sickness the last couple of days. I’m really proud of his effort. He’s our ‘TGHT or The Game Honors Toughness’ winner tonight because he was sick and still went at it. He had a nasty dunk that was a huge momentum play,” Johnny Taylor said.
Berry used back-spin to score a reverse layup on a feed from Layne Taylor. Farmington held the ball for the last shot of the first half. Layne Taylor dribbled with his back to the basket on the wing, then stuck a turnaround 3-point jump shot over a double team at the buzzer lifting Farmington to a 45-18 halftime lead.
“Berry had a rough start. He’d been sick a couple of days. We took him out and put him back in. He settled down and played great,” Johnny Taylor said. “Jaxon’s one of the most talented players in our conference and he just keeps getting better and better. His ceiling is so high. I mean he’s just going to continue to get better.”
POUNDING HAILSTONES
The cornerstone of any key conference win engineered by Johnny Taylor is always defense and the Cardinals introduced Huntsville star Mason Davidson to their version of former Arkansas men’s basketball coach Nolan Richardson’s “40 minutes of hailstones” pounding away at the Eagles’ psyche.
It’s 32 minutes at the high school level and every defender Farmington threw at Davidson helped wear him down and raise the frustration level for Huntsville.
“Caleb Blakely was another kid who played great defensively. He just disrupted the ball-handler. He got a 10 second call. Those are big things,” Johnny Taylor said.
The ultra-quick Sam Wells started and got in Davidson’s jersey from the git-go. He was frequently spelled by fresh Cardinals off the bench, each devoted to shutting off Davidson’s patented drives and keep him off the freethrow-line. They succeeded brilliantly with Davidson
“I was super proud. It was a team effort defensively, but I thought Cameron Crisman was the star of the night defensively. Crisman, Davidson scored two points on him. He was the guy we kept running in that was fresh,” Johnny Taylor said. “Sam Wells and Jaeden Newsom did a good job, Kayden Hughes there in the third quarter.”
BATTERED BY FOULS
Layne Taylor got battered by a number of hard fouls in the third quarter which began to draw the ire of Farmington parents and fans. Huntsville was fortunate they didn’t get any players ejected and Eagles’ coach River Gosvener, the youngest head coach in the 4A-1, yanked Amos Mayes after he hammered Layne Taylor twice in 40 seconds, picking up his third and fourth personals. Mayes went to the bench with 3:51 showing in the third and the Eagles trailing 60-26 when all four foul shots went through the net. He didn’t return.
Mayes committed two fouls against Layne Taylor in the first 1:20 of the third. Huntsville’s Jude Box was whistled for an intentional foul. The Eagles found out that putting Layne Taylor at the foul line doesn’t work as a strategy for a team trying to overcome a large deficit.
“I told Layne just keep going in there and let them hit you and you’ll get some free shots out of it so that’s what we did,” Johnny Taylor said.
Farmington increased its lead to 68-37 at the end of the third, insuring the fourth would play out with a running clock.
The yeoman-like work of junior Hunter Reaves that doesn’t show up in any statistical categories looms large for Johnny Taylor.
“Hunter Reaves was our best player defensively, offensively off the bench tonight as far as just playing a role and knowing our scouting report,” Johnny Taylor said.
The Cardinals may be facing some physical battles in the postseason, yet Johnny Taylor doesn’t expect any more targeting.
“I think it’s going to be physical, but it’s not going to be guys just trying to shove you and hurt you. I did not think that was [necessary] and their coach apologized and said he was sorry that those guys did that,” Johnny Taylor.
Kayden McCubin led Huntsville with 20 points while Davidson was limited to 13.