By Mark Carpenter
People’s Defender
After defeating Portsmouth Clay in a Division VII district semifinal game, Coach Austin Kingsolver and his Manchester Greyhounds faced a tall task in their district semifinal match up. On the hardwood at Southeastern Ross High School on March 3, the Hounds faced the #2 seeded South Webster Jeeps.
On this eventual season—ending outing, the Greyhounds had no answers for South Webster’s Brycin McClintic, who racked up 30 points with teammate Hunter Barnard adding 19 as the Jeeps advanced with a comfortable 77-49 victory.
For the first quarter and half, the Hounds played right there with favored South Webster. A pair of first quarter three-pointers from Luke Applegate and another from Parker Hayslip kept the blue and gold within 17-14 after eight minutes. Early in the second frame, Manchester’ Braylon Rickett stepped into rare ground for him as he drained a three-point basket to give the Greyhounds the lead at 29-19. With the game deadlocked at 24, the momentum slowly began to shift as the Jeeps began to build a lead, beginning with a 6-0 run. After Applegate temporarily stalled the Jeeps’ engines with another three-ball, South Webster ended the first half with a 10-4 spurt to lead 40-31 at the break.
As if they needed it, the Jeeps came out of the break refreshed and crushed the greyhound hopes with an 8-0 run to start the third quarter to stretch their advantage to 17 points. Things got no better for the Greyhounds as the third period progresses as they found themselves in a 63-43 hole after three. For an encore, the Jeeps started the fourth quarter with another 8-0 run to take a 28-point lead and it was soon time for both sides to empty their benches and for Manchester to give their seven seniors a final bow as the Jeeps moved on in tourney play with the 77-49 victory.
As mentioned, Brycin McClintic was unstoppable for the Jeeps, pouring in 30 points to lead all scorers with teammate Hunter Barnard adding 19. _South Webster went on to lose 60-51 to Fairfield in a Division VII district championship game.)
The Greyhounds closed their season with an overall mark of 9-15 and were led in scoring in their final game by Braylon Rickett’s 13 points, with Luke Applegate adding 11,, Elijah Crabtree 10 and Parker Hayslip 8.
The loss was the final game in the high school careers of Greyhound seniors Parker Hayslip, Landon Doyle, Braylon Rickett, Traevyn Hilderbrand, Luke Applegate, Elijah Crabtree and Joel Blythe.
“
Leave a Reply