Veterans basketball turns early deficit against Peach County into double digit win; Lady Warhawks run away with 53-point win over Lady Trojans to open Houston County Bear Brawl

WARNER ROBINS — The Veterans Warhawks (4-4) turned the tables on Friday for a 68-58 victory over the Peach County Trojans (1-4), who held an early lead in Game 2 of the Bear Brawl at Houston County High School.

Three observations:

Turning the tables on the Trojans

Peach County went up 9-2 early on Veterans thanks to some key 3-pointers, but from there the ‘Hawks went on a 26-4 run that went on into the final few minutes of the second quarter.

“I have told these guys before, I’m not calling a timeout and bailing you out. You got yourself in the mess get yourself out of the mess,” Veterans coach Chip Flemmer said. “You just gotta get one or two little easy buckets and start feeling pretty good about it, ride out the storm, and then if you can do that, those are teams that win games.”

Some long rebounds and forced turnovers got Veterans out in transition where they found more success than they did against a set Trojans defense that locked them down for much of the night.

If they weren’t getting their hands on attempts at the rim, Peach County was stripping the ‘Hawks in transition or on drives to the basket. Veterans was able to turn the game over on its head despite struggling with that all game.

Peach County did pick it up a bit to end the first half down 32-19, but what might have been a large Trojans lead was completely turned around and the ‘Hawks didn’t look back.

“First half our defense I thought did a really good job. This Peach County team is really good, coach [Steve] Cherry’s got them playing hard, and they get after you so we knew that was gonna happen,” Flemmer said. “I didn’t care what the score was at halftime. That second half, though, I felt like our help defense wasn’t nearly as good. We kind of got a step too slow and we let them chip away…our whole thing is why try to preach ‘stay even keel.’ I don’t care we’re up 20 or down 20 we want to keep fighting.”

Trouble down under

Tristen Abner makes his money in the paint, and that job was made a lot more difficult with the looming figure of 6-foot-8 sophomore Rowan Woodrich.

Woodrich was not the most agile, and often got beat by Abner or others driving to the rim. However, that doesn’t matter when you have an incredible wingspan and can make plays from behind the ball.

Senior Justin Willock also got his hands on a couple of shots, and those are just the ones that made it up. Peach County collapsed in on drives and were able to poke a few balls free in the process.

Buckling down in the second half

The Trojans were threatening to come back in the third quarter as they cut the lead to single digits with 3:38 left.

Veterans was still struggling to get shots inside and Peach County was getting out off of those rebounds, or forcing turnovers before the ‘Hawks even got into their offense.

Before things got out of hand senior Jordan Watson drilled a 3-pointer to make it 41-31, and Veterans got a few stops they needed to preserve their lead. He hit another in the third for his only scores in the quarter, something Flemmer though stabilized the team.

“We had a little stretch when they were coming back and Jordan Watson…hit two threes in a short amount of time, and that was big for us to kind of get that lead back to double digits. I felt like we could breath a little easier and finish it out,” Flemmer said. 

Lady Warhawks 83, Lady Trojans 30

The Veterans Lady Warhawks (5-2) never gave the Peach County Lady Trojans (1-4) a chance as they took a 22-point lead in the first quarter and never looked back in their 83-30 final of the first game of the weekend’s Bear Brawl at Houston County High School.

Here are three observations from Friday’s opener:

Domination down low

One of the Lady ‘Hawks strengths this season has been their length down low, and that was one of the main reasons they were able to create such an insurmountable lead early in Friday’s game.

Veterans was able to alter just about every shot at the rim, without fouling, and grab offensive rebounds while also closing out the defensive glass.

They also dialed up full-court pressure early, which turned into several easy baskets as their lead turned into double digits halfway through the quarter.

The face behind that paint dominance is senior Addyson McClendon. She altered or blocked many shots at the rim, reached above the shorter Peach County bigs for rebounds and had her share of put backs.

Though she left the first quarter a tad early after she took a basketball to the face, her effect is what pushed the Lady ‘Hawks along to a 29-7 first-quarter lead that bloomed to 51-21 by halftime.

“Addyson is our leading rebounder. One of our goals to winning our games…is to win the boards. She leads us most games, she may be averaging double digits in rebounds. She owns the boards,” Fendley said. “She’s a senior, she’s a leader and she leads by example more so than anything else. Rebounding has been huge for us with Addyson.”

I’ll be taking that

Veterans’ ability to force turnovers in tandem with their dominance down low is what gave them the victory.

Their full court pressure didn’t always produce a turnover, but freshman Kiersten Rogers was the beneficiary of several.

Rogers had nine of her 16 points in the first quarter. Veterans coach Tracy Fendley praised her abilities on the floor after the game.

“Kiersten is a really good basketball player in every facet of the game,” Fendley said. “She’s just young and has a lot of growing to do. But on the floor she can jump out of the gym, she’s a great rebounder, she passes the ball really well. She can shoot, she’s really good off the dribble scoring wise. All-around a really good basketball player.”

When the Lady Trojans did get it into the half court the Lady ‘Hawks were still able to snag a couple of steals and get it up to players in transition.

Anchors of the bench unit

The bench unit was not an amazing asset in the first half; Jessie Ortiz and Nariah Nelson had to come in with a few minutes left in the second quarter to stop Veterans from hemorrhaging points.

However, there were a couple of players that performed well enough to be noteworthy.

Rogers is one of those, but sophomore Camila Vicioso was another.

As a big it is an expectation for Vicioso to close out the defensive glass, but she was also able to bring the ball up the floor without turning it over before getting it to a guard.

She also found her lane in transition and was in the proper spot for an easy basket should someone be able to find her, which they did a couple of times.

She was able to finish while also displaying a little bit of range as she stepped out to around 15 feet for mid-range jumpers. That helped her to finish with 14 points on the night.

All in all she performed well because she didn’t make too many mistakes, which is rare for young bench players. Especially ones just returning from flag football.

“We just got Camila back, she actually is a flag football player. So we just got her back 100% of the time and she’s working her way into the varsity rotation just because she’s tall, athletic and she can finish around the basket,” Fendley said. “She’s got a great touch around the basket, that’s probably her best attribute at this point in time, and she runs the floor really well. Defensively she helps us, she gets in a passing lane and she’s long and she gets a lot of deflections.”

UP NEXT

Veterans will come back to Houston County High School for Day 2 of the Bear Brawl to face off against Valdosta on Saturday at 4 p.m.

They will also host Bleckley County on Tuesday, Dec. 17 at 6 p.m. for Military Appreciation Night.