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Smoky Mountain defeats Cougars in season opener
Smoky Mountain’s men’s basketball team opened its season Nov. 24 with a 70-55 victory over Asheville at the SM gym.
Colton Hunt scored 19 points while Jackson Simmons had 16 points and 15 rebounds for the Mustangs. John-Luke Carter added 11 points.
Asheville’s Wakefield Ellison, an East Carolina signee, led all scorers with 21 points, and Zavian Brown netted 14.
Smoky Mountain’s Colton Hunt drives down the lane in last week’s season-opener against Asheville. Hunt scored 19 points and added five assists and three steals in the 70-55 win. – Herald photo by Carey Phillips
“It was a good start for us,” Coach Jimmy Cleaveland said. “I was pleased with our effort but not real pleased with our execution. Of course we’re nowhere near where we need to be, but I thought we played extremely hard.”
The Cougars jumped to a 7-2 lead on Ellison’s three-point play with 5:34 left in the first period.
Al DeGraffenreid’s layup capped a 10-2 run putting the Mustangs up 12-9 at the 2:27 mark, and they led 14-11 at the quarter break.
Carter converted a three-point play giving SM the lead for good, 20-17, with 4:18 to go in the half. The margin reached 33-23 on DeGraffenreid’s basket at the 1:17 mark, and it was 33-25 at intermission.
Carter’s five points sparked a 15-2 spurt giving the Mustangs a 55-35 lead with 50 seconds left in the third stanza, which ended with SM on top 55-39.
The game’s biggest lead was 61-39 when Simmons scored with 6:49 on the clock.
Hunt hit eight field goals, including a trio of three-pointers. Simmons scored all his points from the floor while Carter had four field goals, including two treys, and a foul shot.
Cort Smith finished with nine points, Dillon Dunford netted five, DeGraffenreid and Joe Davis both scored four, and Jeremy Cauley had two.
Hunt had five assists and three steals.
The Mustangs shot 50.8 percent from the floor.
Cleaveland noted it was the first extensive playing time for Dunford since the end of the 2006-07 season. He missed almost all of last year with a knee injury and suffered another knee injury in the off season.
“He did really well,” Cleaveland said. “He’s getting better every day.”
The coach said Hunt, Simmons and Smith all played well.
He added that Carter did a good job stepping into the starting lineup, which includes four seniors and one sophomore.
The Mustang JVs won 46-27. They trailed 8-7 after the first quarter but led 20-15 at halftime and 28-23 entering the fourth period.
Jarrod Couch scored 10 points.
“It was a typical first game,” Coach Brandon Pendergast said. “We have a pretty young team, and our sophomores settled us down. It was a tight game until the fourth quarter. We got aggressive defensively, and we’re getting out and running with the ball.”
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