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Vanlandingham leads North over Mustangs
Chris Vanlandingham scored 26 points Friday leading North Henderson to a 76-60 Western Athletic Conference basketball victory over Smoky Mountain at the SM gym.
Jamie Justus added 17 points for the Knights, and Eric Russell had 11.
Dillon Dunford led the Mustangs (6-15, 1-7) with 22 points, and Cory Siler had 13.
North enjoyed a huge advantage at the foul line by making 34 of 44 attempts while SM was 11 of 18.
“We told them there was no pressure on us and to just go out and play,” Coach Scott Hartbarger said. “We only scored seven points in the first quarter and couldn’t get in a rhythm the whole night. Defensively, our half court man-to-man was good, but when we would go to a zone we would leave the shooters open.”
The Knights took the lead for good with nine straight points, including six by Vanlandingham, for a 12-4 margin with 3:45 to play in the first quarter, which ended with North on top 16-7.
The biggest lead of the half was 23-11 on a Justus three-pointer with 5:34 to play, and the Knights led 34-27 at intermission.
The Mustangs cut the gap to 36-30 on Hawkins’ basket with 6:11 to go in the third period.
North led 44-37 entering the fourth quarter.
A driving basket by Dunford narrowed the deficit to 45-39 at the 7:27 mark.
The Knights regained control with a 10-2 spurt, including five by Vanlandingham, with 5:30 on the clock.
The lead reached 74-56 when Carson Rhodes made two foul shots with 17.1 seconds left.
Dunford hit eight field goals and was six of six at the foul line. Siler made five field goals, including a three-pointer, and two foul shots.
Hawkins, Martin Davis and Taylor Gilleland all finished with six points, Rodney McCormick scored three, and Tyson Crawford and Josh Jones both had two.
“Dillon had a good game,” Hartbarger said. “He was dribble penetrating and made some things happen.”
The Mustang JVs improved to 11-8 with a 60-52 win behind 21 points from Trey Shular and 15 from David Cheatham.
SM led at quarter breaks by scores of 17-12, 31-14 and 45-29.
“We played great defense and held them to two points in the second quarter,” Coach Jim Hartbarger said. “We switched to a box-and-one and played great team basketball.”
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