| UC teams double up on Falcons | | Posted: Monday, December 3, 2012 7:00 pm
| By KEVIN WEAKS
Messenger Sports
For one night at least, some of the power in District 14A shifted to Union City.
The Golden Tornadoes swept away Lake County at the UC gym on Friday night, taking control of the girls’ game early en route to a 65-41 win and then steadily pulling away from the second quarter on in the nightcap for a 75-48 win.
In both cases, the final score was the largest lead of the game for Union City. The Lady Twisters scored the game’s first 15 points and never trailed, while the UC boys trailed only briefly early in the game before going ahead for good about midway into the opening period.
Lake County was a thorn in the side of UC’s boys last year, winning two of the three meetings. Included was a victory in the Region 7A semifinals at Trenton that ended UC’s season and helped propel the Falcons on to the state tournament.
The Lady Falcons, meanwhile, have been a thorn to every team in 14A the past three years. LC had won 40 straight regular season league games until Friday night. UC now has two straight wins over Lake County, the other coming in last year’s regional tournament championship game.
Union City has won its first two league games, both at home, and will hit the road for the first time on Tuesday with a visit to Humboldt.
UC 65, Lake Co. 41 (G)
Using its “big” lineup that has four forwards — Tory Reedy at the point, Jackie Hudson on the wing and both Kaleigh Bynum and Tamara Nettles in the low post — along with Kieesha Alexander at guard, Union City still matched up well athletically with Lake County, pitching a shutout for the game’s first 5:53 while knocking down three 3-pointers on the other end for a 15-0 lead.
“I’m not worried about the lineup offensively, but sometimes I worry about how we’ll match up on defense,” UC head coach Eddie Suiter said. “But, we were smart. We’d talked about switching in certain instances, and I think we switched every time we should have. They scored their points, but just about everything was contested, and that’s what we wanted to do.”
The Lady Twisters made sure LC would not get back in the game as Reedy hit a triple early in the second frame and then answered a Shamon Pearson trey with another one for a 25-10 lead. After Tiana Gray hit a 3-pointer, Bynum banked in a shot and Reedy took a steal the other way to put UC ahead 29-13 at 3:21 of the second frame.
Union City ran its advantage up to 20 points by the end of the third, 43-23, and then took the last of its three 24-point leads just in front of the final horn when TauiNeiscia Skinner picked up some garbage to become the eighth Lady Twister to score.
Reedy hit three treys for a game-best 18 points, while Hudson pitched in 15 and Nettles scored 12. Pearson had 13 for Lake County.
UC 75, Lake Co. 48 (B)
The Twisters reeled off seven quick points after falling behind 7-6 and never looked back. Three-point baskets by Marcus DeBerry, who hit four treys for the game, and Jamie Hyde gave Union City a 19-11 lead after one quarter.
Donte Simpson converted the rare four-point play at 4:14, and then DeBerry hit three times at the line 10 seconds later as UC opened up a 36-20 advantage.
UC continued to use 3-pointers and free throws to expand the margin to 19, 45-26, at the half and then to 31 points, 64-33, at the end of three frames.
UC then spent the fourth period trying to get as many players as possible in the scoring column, finally getting points from 11 of the 15 players who saw action.
“We put more quarters together than what we have in the first five games,” UC head coach Shane Sisco said. “I think we gave a good effort defensively, I thought we did a good job of taking care of the ball, and I thought we did a good job of rebounding the ball. We’re showing some improvement and doing some things that are better.”
DeBerry’s 18 were the most of any player, followed by Hyde with 15 and Simpson with 12. As in the girls’ game, LC’s lone player in double figures had 13, that total posted by Zay Coleman.
UC hit 28 field goals in all, including seven 3-pointers, and was 12-of-17 at the line. Published in The Messenger 12.3.12 | | | | |
