Varsity Boys win MVC Tournament, Advance in State Playoffs

By Joel Frady

Huskies down Rams to advance to finals
The Starmount Rams were able to upset the North Surry Greyhounds in the opening round of the Mountain

Valley Conference tournament, but the magic ended when they visited West Jefferson for a semifinal match against the Ashe County Huskies on Wednesday, Feb. 18.

The Huskies had easily beaten Starmount both times the teams met in the regular season, but for a quarter they had their hands full.

The first quarter was as back-and-forth as any fan could hope for, with four ties and four lead changes. For several minutes, Starmount would grab a lead only for the Huskies to even the score, but baskets from seniors Tommy Spagnola and Daniel Waln in the final minute put the Huskies up 15-11.

The Huskies would never trail again, and it didn't take them much time to increase their lead. Senior Tatum Lemly scored five quick points to push the lead to 24-15. A minute later, Waln hit two three-point shots in the span of 18 seconds to give Ashe County a 30-17 advantage.

Starmount was only able to score four points in the final five minutes as the Huskies took a 39-21 lead into the break.

The Huskies continued to outpace Starmount in the third quarter, pushing their lead into the 20s. But Starmount made a run in the final two minutes, scoring seven straight points to cut a 56-29 Ashe County lead down to 56-36.

Ashe County slowed the pace down in the fourth quarter, and both teams hit eight-point runs. The Huskies scored eight straight over the first two minutes to lead 64-36, but the Rams went on an 8-0 run of their own in the game's final minutes before falling 64-44.

Viking upset Eagles, advance to finals
After a season of futility against Wilkes Central Eagles that featured three double-digit losses, the North Wilkes Vikings found their rhythm on Thursday, Feb. 19, in West Jefferson and pulled a rare upset of their Wilkes County rival.

The squads got off to similar starts, trading baskets over an opening three minutes that had three ties. The teams combined for 14 points in those first three minutes before both went cold; North Wilkes failed to score again in the quarter while the Eagles could only muster five points for a 12-7 lead.

North Wilkes opened the second quarter on fire, scoring seven points in the first two minutes to take a 14-12 lead. The Eagles tied the game at 16 with 3:58 remaining in the quarter before going on a 10-3 run to take a 26-19 edge at the half.

North Wilkes mounted a comeback at the beginning of the third, opening with a 7-2 run to cut the Eagles' lead to two. The teams exchanged the lead three times over the next minute before Wilkes Central tied the game at 35, but Storm Clonch of North Wilkes hit a shot with one second left in the third to take a 37-35 lead that the Vikings would never surrender.

The Vikings took off over the first four minutes of the fourth quarter, outscoring the Eagles 10-1 to take an 11-point lead. Wilkes Central mounted a run down the stretch but never came closer than three.

With the 56-53 victory, North Wilkes Head Coach Tommy Johnson earned his 400th career win.

Huskies conquer Vikings, conference tournament
North Wilkes was able to pull off the upset on Thursday night and were able to hang with the Ashe County Huskies for the first 18 minutes of the Mountain Valley Conference tournament title game on Friday, Feb. 20, in West Jefferson.

But a massive run by Ashe County over the third and fourth quarters silenced any talk of a second upset and helped the Huskies to an easy 66-31 victory.

For the first six minutes of the game, it appeared that Ashe County was going to easily walk away with the title. The Huskies played a tough defense and converted turnovers into points to take a 16-3 lead late in the first quarter. But the Vikings answered with a 7-0 run in just over a minute to cut Ashe County's lead to six before Waln hit a three-point basket with two seconds remaining to give the Huskies a 19-10 lead.

North Wilkes played a strong second quarter, opening with four points in the first minute to pull within five. Spagnola hit two baskets down the line to put the Huskies up 28-17, but back-to-back three pointers from North Wilkes sophomore Ty Johnson cut the lead back to five.

The Huskies led 30-23 at the break, but two quick shots from junior Ramon Herrera pulled the Vikings to within three at 30-27.

Then North Wilkes went cold, really cold, as the Huskies got really hot. For the next 10 minutes of the game, the Vikings scored no points and went zero-for-six from the free throw line. Ashe County, on the other hand, had five players score as they dropped 28 consecutive points on the Vikings.

By the time North Wilkes scored again, at the 4:07 mark of the final quarter, Ashe County was up 58-27. North Wilkes only scored four more points, all from the free throw line, as the Huskies sealed the 66-31 game for the title.

Ashe County Head Coach Marc Payne, who hadn't won a conference tournament since his days at the now defunct Beaver Creek High School, said, "it's an outstanding feeling.

"So far, it's been an outstanding year," he continued. "Give all the credit to our players - they put themselves in the position for this, so they're obviously very excited and very happy."

Payne noted that his squad's 28-0 run in the second half was "not an abnormality.

"They've done this all year long, make runs like that in the second half," he said.

Now 22-3, Ashe County has a top seed and, potentially, home court advantage through the first three rounds of the state tournament if they win. For Payne, home court makes a world of difference.

"We don't lose many games at home," he said. "We haven't lost at home this year, and we only lost three at home last year.

"It's a big advantage to play at home," he continued, "and we found that out last year when we traveled three-plus hours to Forest Hill in the first round, came back home and had to travel two hours plus to East Lincoln. That traveling gets to you."

Huskies sneak past East Davidson, advance to second round
The Ashe County Huskies got little rest after their Mountain Valley Conference championship before jumping into the North Carolina 2-A West State Championships with a home match against the East Davidson Golden Eagles on Monday, Feb. 23.

Early in the game, it was obvious that Ashe County was going to have to fight to keep their season alive.

The Golden Eagles started the game on fire behind the arch, hitting four three-point shots in the first quarter. Two of those shots came back-to-back midway through the quarter and helped East Davidson turn a 7-6 lead into a 13-6 lead.

Waln responded for Ashe County, however, sinking two three-point shots of his own over the final two-and-a-half minutes to cut the deficit to 18-12 after the first quarter.

East Davidson opened the second quarter with two three point baskets, while Spagnola scored four of his own to keep the Huskies within eight. The Huskies hit a 6-0 run to cut the East Davidson lead to three with 1:07 remaining in the half, but shot only three-of-eight from the free throw line during that stretch.

Two quarters into their first tournament game, the Huskies trailed 28-26. Despite trailing for the final 12 minutes of the first half, it took Ashe County less than two minutes of the third quarter to take the lead.

Lemly started the run for Ashe County, scoring four quick points to give Ashe County a 30-28 lead at the 6:08 mark. Spagnola then added two baskets in 15 seconds to push the lead to 34-29. The Huskies' defense held strong for the rest of the quarter and five players scored to finish the quarter up 10, 48-38.

Spagnola put the Huskies up 12 early in the fourth, but East Davidson mounted a comeback. Sparked by a three-point shot, the Golden Eagles scored seven points in little more than a minute to cut the lead to 50-45. Lemly hit another run a minute later, scoring four quick points to push the lead back to nine, 55-46.

But East Davidson went back to what had worked so well early in the game, hitting two fast three-point buckets to pull within three at the 3:16 mark. The Huskies' pushed the lead back to seven, 59-52, but East Davidson kept fighting.

Down 62-58 in the final minute, Christian Clark of East Davidson hit a three to pull within one.

The Eagles fouled Waln with 15 seconds on the clock. He hit the first free throw but missed the second, but Spagnola pulled down the offensive rebound and went to the line with 14 seconds remaining.

Spagnola hit one of two, and East Davidson called a timeout at the nine second mark. The Huskies almost forced a turnover in the final seconds, but a foul sent Clark to the line with two seconds remaining.

Clark hit one of two, and the Eagles managed to foul Spagnola again with a single second on the game clock. Spagnola hit the second to put Ashe County up 65-62, and a East Davidson's desperation three at the buzzer hit the rafters overhead and fell safely to the floor.

With the win, the Huskies are 23-3 overall. They will host Providence Grove High School on Wednesday, Feb. 25, at 7 p.m. in the second round of the state tournament. If they win on Wednesday, they will also host a third-round game on Friday.