By Carey Phillips
Jaydon Dawkins scored 26 points powering Erwin to a 71-58 non-conference men’s basketball victory over Smoky Mountain on Jan. 3 at Erwin.
Kelson Rymer added 14 points for the Warriors, and C.J. Walker had 10.
Jed West topped the Mustangs with 19 points. Carson Seagraves and Sawyer Snider finished with 11 and 10 points, respectively.
“We’ve got to start making some plays consistently,” Coach Jimmy Cleaveland said. “We’re just not a good enough team to overcome missed layups and free throws like that. Sawyer and Jed both did great jobs defensively guarding their players, but we would lapse someplace else.”
Erwin led most of the game after using a 12-2 run, including four each by Dawkins and Walker, to go up 14-4 with 2:45 left in the first quarter, which ended 16-9.
SM cut the gap to 20-17 with 4:19 to play in the half as two free throws by Seagraves capped an 8-2 spurt.
The Warriors led 29-21 at halftime.
The Mustangs scored the first seven points of the second half, the last five by Seagraves, closing the deficit to 29-28 with 5:51 on the clock.
Erwin scored the next nine points, including five by Dawkins, for a 38-28 advantage at the 4:12 mark.
SM had by far its best stretch of the game over the next three minutes with a 17-3 run, including eight by West and seven by Snider. The result was a 45-41 lead with 19 seconds to go in the third quarter.
The Warriors scored in the closing seconds making it 45-43.
Chess Talbert’s three--pointer gave Erwin the lead for good, 53-50, with 5:11 on the clock.
The Warriors pulled away with eight consecutive points for a 65-54 lead on Ty Johnson’s layup at the 1:32 mark.
The final represented the game’s largest lead.
West made four field goals, including a three--pointer, and 10 foul shots. Seagraves hit three field goals and was five of five from the line. Two of Snider’s four field goals were treys.
Tanner Gerrety added seven points, Jayce Stillwell netted five, Cameron Fowler scored four and Matthew Brown had two.
The Warriors won the JV game 62-30. They led at quarter breaks by scores of 19-4, 33-24 and 48-28.
SM’s Ben Brown had 18 points.
“We got a little frustrated, and our kids didn’t handle the adversity when it hit them,” Coach Jerrod Boone said. “It took us a while to kind of bounce back and play through that stuff, whether they disagree with a call or they think they shouldn’t have got a foul or we turn it over and didn’t sprint back. We’ve just got to do a little bit better job of handling adversity and being prepared to play, and that’s on me. We’ve got to come in more focused and ready to go.”
