By Shannon Fagan, WEIS Sports Director
CENTRE – Cherokee County boys basketball coach Caleb Hays is seeing more maturity, confidence and chemistry with his basketball team every time out on the court.
On Thursday against area rival White Plains, the Warriors faced perhaps their toughest test of the season so far. Two nights prior, the Warriors lost a heartbreaking game in overtime at Alexandria by a basket.
“We just talked about we couldn’t have a hangover because we did play really well,” Hays said. “Because we lost it, now we’ve got to feel that sting. You know what you’ve got to do to win it the next time if you’re in that situation. It gave me as an opportunity as a coach to bring up situational things. Those close ones, those overtime games, it’s easy to find things that could’ve won you the game that we could practice and work on. It’s just getting them to understand that’s what it takes. They’re getting it.”
The Warriors proved they’re ‘getting it’ with a 67-57 victory over the Wildcats to sweep the season series. Cherokee County won the first meeting at White Plains 57-47 back on Dec. 19.
Four Warriors scored in double figures on Thursday, led by Tatum Perry’s 17 points. Ben Moseley rang for 16. Reid Jacoway tossed in 15 and Jayquan Diamond finished with 11.
“We’re playing where you can’t just take one guy away from us,” Hays said. “I don’t think anybody necessarily out-shined anybody else. That’s how you want it as a coach. You want to have five guys (on the floor) who are confident.”
And that confidence carried over on defense for the Warriors (8-4, 3-1 area) as well.
After holding just a two-point advantage at 17-15 after one, Cherokee County built a 36-27 advantage at halftime and held a 48-38 edge after three quarters by limiting White Plains to just one shot on many of its trips up the court.
“There were a couple of times where we lost shooters, but our close outs were good,” Hays said. “We knew we wanted to run off their misses and make sure we took advantage if they did miss and keep them out of the paint as much as possible. Ben did a really good job of protecting the rim. Owen (Jacoway) and Ethan Glass came in there and did a good job too of just being big bodies. Keyshawn (Woods), Jayquan (Diamond), all those guys, we didn’t give them a lot of extra chances.
“There were a couple of times they got some loose balls, but most of the time we were really crashing the boards, making sure if they were going to hit it, they were going to hit it the first time. That was our goal. We wanted to make sure we didn’t give them two or three opportunities to get that shot.”
White Plains did hit eight 3-pointers in the game, including three in the fourth quarter to stay within striking distance, but Hays said those treys were below the Wildcats’ average.
“They just came off a game against Cleburne County where they had 84 (points) and hit 10 3s or so,” Hays said. “We knew they’ve been playing really well.”
Will Graham, Ethan Turner and Cash Pritchett led the Wildcat with 11 points each. Crew Martin finished with nine points and Bryson Cheatwood had seven points. Graham and Martin finished with a pair of treys apiece.
Perry and Reid Jacoway also had a pair of 3-pointers apiece for the Warriors.
Next up for the Warriors is another area rematch with Alexandria. They host the Valley Cubs on Tuesday evening.
“We know what we’ve got to do on Tuesday. We’ve got to try and take care of business to make sure we’re in the hunt to be able to host (the Class 4A, Area 12 tournament),” Hays said. “We needed that (White Plains win) just to keep some momentum going. Any time you get an area win, that’s big time.”
