Ashe County Takes First Two Games on the Road

By Joel Frady

Huskies Score 27 in Third to Defeat Watauga

The varsity boy's basketball team were set with a tough task on Tuesday, Dec. 2, as they opened their

season with an away game against the rival Watauga Pioneers in Boone. The match-up didn't get off to a good start for the Huskies, as they scored only 23 points in the first half and trailed by seven at halftime.

But the Huskies came out on fire in the second half. Senior point guard Daniel Waln hit two three-point shots in the first minute of the third quarter to pull within one, and Grayson Wells converted a three-point conversion at the 5:52 mark to tie the game at 32-32. The Pioneers couldn't get through a suddenly stingy Ashe County defense, either, and the Huskies scored 10 of the game's next 11 points to go up 42-33.

Ashe County Head Coach Mark Payne credited the third-quarter outburst, in which Ashe County outscored Watauga 27 to nine, to an energized defense.

"We decided we were going to play a little defense and have a little intensity on the defensive end," he said. "You can't match offense to offense, you're going to have to create some opportunities. Watauga did a great job in their zone (in the first half). We stood around on their zone, we didn't get into the interior. We had only two buckets inside the paint in the first half, all the rest of them came from the perimeter.

"To me, that was the difference in the game: the intensity level that we played defense with in the second half," he continued.

Waln scored 27 points, including 11 in the third, and hit seven three-point shots to lead Ashe County, which played the entire fourth quarter with a comfortable lead en route to a 68-52 victory. Senior Grayson Wells added 11 for Ashe County, and senior Tommy Spagnola added seven.

Payne noted that the team didn't do anything different offensively in the second half.

"We didn't change any of our sets, we just had a little more initiative with what we were doing," he said. "We can't stand around - we had to create some movement and get inside the zone, and we did a better job with that in the second half."

He also said that leadership helped his team mount a comeback after trailing by as many as 10 points in the first half.

"We had 11 of 12 guys back off last year's team," said Payne. "We've got enough veterans and enough veteran leadership that needed to step up, and that's what happened in the second half. We called for a little more leadership at halftime."

The Huskies have now won four straight against the Pioneers - a streak they will put on the line when Watauga makes the trip to West Jefferson on Friday, Dec. 12. But for Payne and the Huskies, they now have an actual game to watch and study for areas of improvement.

"We were in a position where we have to play these things," Payne said. "We can't find out these things against ourself. It's important to start playing, and now that we've started playing we've got something that we can work on. Now we can compare (our performance) to an opponent."

Huskies Sail Past Vikings, 71-54

It took the Ashe County Huskies' varsity boy's team a quarter to get warmed up, but it didn't take them long to create a cushion between themselves and the Avery County Vikings once they got rolling.

The Huskies scored several quick points and captured a 7-2 lead in the first three minutes of the game, but Avery hung tight throughout the first quarter. After chipping the Ashe County lead down to one, the Vikings took a 13-12 advantage with 30 seconds remaining in the first quarter.

Senior Tucker Clay scored with five seconds left in the quarter, giving Ashe County the lead and sparking a 20-0 run over the next five minutes. By the time Avery finally scored again with 3:01 remaining in the first half, Ashe County had built a 32-13 lead.

Head Coach Marc Payne said that he thought the team "missed a lot of easy shots" in the first quarter, but the team's defensive play created opportunities.

"Basically, all we played tonight was straight man-to-man defense," he said. "We just tried to do it real well, and if we do it well - we're athletic enough that we can get a lot of blockers and if we box out, we'll get a lot of run-outs, and that's what we did."

During the team's 20-point run, he said the key was "to sit back and keep it going. You've got to keep the intensity up and not get lackadaisical and continue that run as long as we can continue it."

Ashe County led 38-22 at the half, and maintained a double-digit lead throughout the rest of the game. Payne and the coaching staff rotated players throughout the second half to keep fresh players on the floor, helping to create a 55-35 advantage after three quarters and a 71-54 final.

"It was a good opportunity for us to come out and play," Payne said after the game. "I thought our defensive intensity throughout the game was obviously better than it was Tuesday night, and that's one of the things we've been harping on for two days at practice following Tuesday's game."

He added that they will continue to focus on the importance of strong defense.

"We've got to set the pace of the game defensively," he said. "If we play good defense and take them out of their comfort zone, we're going to get a lot of easy stuff at the other end."

Ashe County (2-0) will get to play their next three games at home. They played Alleghany High School on Tuesday, Dec. 9, and will host Watauga on Friday, Dec. 12.

Admission to all home games is $5. To find out more about upcoming games, contact Ashe County High School at (336) 846-2400. Anyone unable to attend games can listen to all the varsity action on WKSK 580 AM.