ENGLAND - England capped a perfect run through the 2A-5 with a near-perfect performance Saturday in the district tournament championship.
The Lions had three players score 10 or more points, led by Devonte Patterson’s 19 points, to breeze past Cutter Morning Star 59-41.
“We’ve still got a long ways to go to get to where we want to, but this one right here feels good,” England Coach Tyler Scott said. “The guys have been working extremely hard all year, and they earned the win.”
Patterson, the tournament’s Most Valuable Player, also had 8 rebounds, 7 assists, and 4 steals in leading England (25-2) to its third victory of the season over its conference rival. Tyrik Harris finished with 16 points and 9 rebounds for the Lions while B.J. Thompson had 12 points off the bench.
Matt Bates scored a team high 12 points to pace Cutter Morning Star (13-8), which was forced to play from behind for nearly the entire game.
The Eagles led 3-0 after Bailey White opened the game with a three-pointer. England responded with six quick points and dictated the tempo the remainder of the game while negating Cutter Morning Star’s size advantage around the glass.
“We sped the game up, and that’s what broke the game open for us,” Scott said. “[Cutter Morning Star] actually played a better game defensively than they did the last time we played them. They really got up on us and played with a lot more intensity.
“But we were able to press them more when they had the ball, and that really got us going.”
England, which held an overwhelming 34-16 rebounding advantage, forced Cutter Morning Star into six turnovers over the final three minutes of the first quarter, then used its press to harass the Eagles into six more miscues in the second period. In fact, Patterson scored 13 points of his points in the period, 10 of which resulted off of Eagle turnovers.
The Lions led 32-23 at the half but used a 14-1 run midway through the third quarter to run away from the Eagles.
England finished the game 24 of 51 shooting while Cutter Morning Star hit only 14 of his 40 shots.
GIRLS ENGLAND 49, MAGNET COVE 43
England outscored Magnet Cove 7-2 over the game’s final two minutes to capture the district tournament championship.
Tournament Most Valuable Player Julia Bryant scored 20 points and had six assists for England (23-4), which trailed 36-34 heading into the fourth quarter. Alesha Penister added 11 points.
Shelby Stone scored 16 points to lead Magnet Cove (16-9).
Sports, Pages 23 on 02/23/2014