Covington bad host for Westview

Posted: Wednesday, January 30, 2013 12:00 pm

By RANDY CAVIN
Press Sports
One play is all it took for the momentum to swing Covington’s way and give the home team a 46-40 win over Westview in girls’ basketball on Friday.
An offensive rebound, layup and foul — all in one play to tie the score at 40 with 3:27 to play — turned the tide Covington’s way as Westview went scoreless the last 3:38 of the game while Covington closed it out on a nine-point run.
The Westview boys, meanwhile, gave up 20-plus points to two Covington players as Westview saw its chances for a regular season district championship get even slimmer in an 82-50 defeat.
Those games impacted the state polls. In the girls’ doouble-A rankings, Westview and Covington switched places with Covington going to No. 2 and Westview falling to No. 5, while the Covington boys moved up a spot to No. 3.
Teddy Vincent hit a 3-pointer — Westview’s last points of the game — to give the Lady Chargers a 40-37 lead before the game-altering chain of events took place.
Rebounding haunted Westview throughout the game. Covington was getting rebounds on both ends of the court, while Westview was struggling to come away with some.
“I thought the deal tonight was we did not rebound well enough to win,” Lady Chargers head coach Sean Stephenson said. “As soon as we make that three to go up three, we went down there immediately and gave up an offensive rebound and they got that three-point play.”
The loss is Westview’s first in District 13AA and put the Lady Chargers at 12-1 in the district and 20-3 overall. Covington is now 13-1 in the district and 23-2 overall.
Tarecus Hughes scored 26 points and Demetrius Dyson added 21 points as the two Covington big men pounded the offensive glass while getting two and three extra shots during the nightcap.
“They are very physical on the inside, and it is something we are going to have to look at,” head coach JB Suiter said. “We are going to have to find other ways to deal with that. They are just too good inside.”
Westview is now 10-3 in the district and 18-6 overall. Covington, the No. 3 team in Class AA, is now 14-0 in the district and 21-3 overall.
Both Westview teams will try to right the ship tonight at home against South Gibson, while Covington is at Ripley.
Covington 46, WV 40 (G)
Westview could not have picked a worse time to go into a scoring drought on Friday against Covington.
With the score tied at 40 with 3:27 to play, the Lady Chargers could not get the ball to fall as it either bounced off the edge or rattled in-and-out.
Covington’s Precious Harvey scored on a transition layup after a Westview turnover to give Covington the lead for good at 42-40 with 2:52 to play.
Westview sent Covington to the line five times in the final 1:45 of the game to keep the clock from running, and Covington hit 4-of-8 free throws to seal the win.
Westview could only put 10 points on the scoreboard in the final period, while Covington scored 16.
This game was all about rebounding.
Westview dominated Covington on the boards in the first meeting between the two teams at Martin. Westview had Jasmine Howard pulling down rebounds in that meeting. On this night, the Lady Chargers were without the injured Howard and it showed.
“This is the first time we played somebody in the top tier of the district without Jasmine,” Stephenson said. “So, the rebounding issue was exposed a little bit. Maybe this will hit home and they will understand what we have been trying to preach.”
Westview was down 13-8 at the end of the first period thanks to triple set of 3-pointers in the period by Covington.
The Lady Chargers took an 18-17 lead in the second period on a basket by Kaley Leyhue. Westview outscored Covington 14-4 in the last 6:06 of the first half to take a 26-19 lead at the break. Tiffany Rechis scored half of those points for Westview and ended the half with one from long range. Rechis led the Lady Chargers with 15 points.
Westview’s shooting went cold in the third period as Covington took a narrow lead 30-28 just before Vincent tied it up at 30 with 13 to play in the period.
Vincent had 11 points for Westview and Leyhue added five.
Covington 82, WV 50 (B)
Westview still had a chance entering the fourth period against Covington, but the Chargers could not keep Covington off the glass or the scoreboard.
Covington outscored Westview 12-2 in the first five minutes of the final period to go up 72-47.
It was Covington’s two big men who put on a show. The two transfer players combined to score 47 of Covington’s 82 points.
“It is probably nice when you have kids of that caliber transfer in from other schools,” Suiter said. “Whatever magic they have working here at Covington is what we need to have at our place. They are obviously good, talented kids. You cannot single out one of those because they have enough guys who can step up.”
The Chargers only lead of the game came in the first period when Javier Gordon made a layup to make it 10-9. Covington came right back to retake the lead for good on a 3-pointer by Hughes. Covington led 21-15 at the end of one.
Westview got back to within three in the second period on a 3-pointer by Tyquis Johnson, but then Covington went on 12-6 run to take a 47-35 lead at the half.
Westview was called for two technical fouls in the first half and was issued a third technical foul in the third period.
Westview only made 2-of-9 free throw attempts.
Hogard led Westview with 21 points and made three 3-pointers. Gordon  added 14 points. Published in The WCP 1.29.13