Warhawks stage rockin debut

mbrown@sunmulti.com

If Jalyn Slaughter had an

‘all-world’ junior season on the Veterans High volleyball court, her debut

performance in a Lady Warhawk basketball uniform Tuesday may qualify for

universal status.

With 20 points, 13 rebounds

and five steals, Slaughter paced Veterans’ girls to a tough 46-41 2012-13

season opening win at home against Jones County High. The forward didn’t do it

alone, as her point guard of the previous two seasons, Kerrigan Poe-Cochran, had

five assists to go with six points, five boards and three steals.

Things weren’t easy, though,

for second-year head coach Nicole Miranda, who is dealing mainly with

inexperience after Slaughter, Poe-Cochran, senior guard Aspen Coggins and two

other forwards. After a tied 17-17 score at halftime, the Lady Warhawks led by

as much as 14 in the third period.

But the coach couldn’t sit

comfortably through the fourth as Jones sliced that margin down as close as

four.

“I knew we would go in

spurts where we would look really good at times and really bad at other times,”

said Miranda. “We started off well, then got in foul trouble and completely

blew the lead in the first quarter.”

In fact, Veterans went on an

8-0 run, and then Jones scored 15 in a row. Miranda then saw her club hold

Jones to just two points in the second period.

“After that, I thought we

were in control of the game,” she said. “Jalyn played fantastic.”

Slaughter was 4-for-4

shooting inside in the second period with two fouls. She sat on the bench at

4:21 of the first period.

“That’s where she’s

matured,” said Miranda. “I think she only finished with three (fouls), which is

good. There were many times when she would have fouled out.

“We had a couple of

defensive lapses with (Jones’) back-to-back 3s. I thought we relaxed a little

too much in the fourth quarter. But it’s the first time we’ve ever opened up

with a win, so we’re happy.”

If the work between

Slaughter and Poe-Cochran continues to improve, Veterans fans may have their

own John Stockton-Karl Malone type show for the next three months. Miranda said

it wasn’t so much Poe-Cochran’s high number of assists Tuesday, but low number

of turnovers: one.

“A 5-to-1 turnover ratio is

everything I could ask for,” said Miranda. “She hit some big free throws down

the stretch. We didn’t shoot the ball well from the outside … we have a couple

of shooters who are capable.

“We have a young team.

Nobody else has varsity experience. This was big to start off confidence-wise.”

In the 8-0 run to get the

game going, everything happened quickly for three minutes. Coggins had her

first assist off the opening tip, and Poe-Cochran ran the floor twice with a

pass off to Slaughter and her own end-to-end basket.

Both Slaughter and starter

Lakinya Green had the biggest foul problems, and a minute after Slaughter sat

Jones County had the score at 8-5. In a span of two minutes, the Lady

Greyhounds scored eight of 10 points off turnovers.

As the second quarter began,

Slaughter immediately ended the 15-0 run on her first attempt. While she was

2-for-2 inside, Jones went four minutes without a point. Slaughter’s

third-straight make, from a pass inside, tied the game 15-15 at 3:32.

It wasn’t until 2:18 that

Jones scored, connecting on a long 2-pointer. The final two minutes were all

about turnovers, so it stayed 17-17 for halftime.

Much like the first quarter,

Veterans had all kinds of energy and success to open the third. Slaughter took

a Coggins lob on the first possession, and Green popped in a baseline jumper on

the second. At 5:42, Veterans was leading by 10, 27-17, as Poe-Cochran threw

two assists to Slaughter and went all the way off a long rebound.

Jones again waited until

inside the three-minute mark to score (2:49) while the Lady Warhawks completed

an overall 14-0 run. There were two more assisted baskets, Coggins to Green and

Poe-Cochran to Slaughter. It was 33-23 at the end of the quarter, young guard

Temia Sapp stealing the ball twice and scoring once.

Courtney Palmer, after going

0-for-the-game, finally made a 3. But her team only had five overall for more

than four minutes of the fourth, and Jones used a takeaway to make it 38-30.

Green caused a takeaway out

of a timeout and stuck a baseline jumper at 1:30. In the final three minutes,

Veterans was 6-for-8 at the foul line to counter the two 3-pointers from the

Lady Greyhounds in the final minute.

“We played seven or eight

people in a good rotation,” said Slaughter. “I have to work on our back-up

point guards. We’re going to have to find ways to score from the perimeter.”

WARHAWKS WIN

To start a new era of

Veterans High boys basketball, first-year Warhawk head coach Chris Kothe sent

his club onto the home court Tuesday against Jacquez Smith and the Jones County

High Greyhounds. With a full team effort, Veterans used a fourth-quarter surge

to pull away from Jones 65-51.

“That’s going to be the key

for us this year,” said Kothe. “It’s going to be a team effort every night if

we are going to be as successful as we can be. We have some individual plays,

but you saw what happened when we tried to do it by ourselves. That’s when it

fell apart on us a little bit.

“When we play as a team,

that’s when we put it together.”

The 6-9 Smith, already

signed to play for Florida State University, stood both at the 3-point line and

inside an equal amount of time. He had 17 points, 11 in the second half.

“He can shoot the

basketball, go inside and out,” said Kothe. “We did a good job defending him.

He hurt us a couple of times on the glass and hit a couple of open 3s I did not

like, but overall we did a good job on a player of his caliber.”

Veterans’ own starting

center, 6-5 Malik Broughton, had eight points, none that got his team and fans

more riled up than on a dunk against Smith that fouled the Greyhound out of the

game in the final minute. Both Broughton and guard Jonathan Robertson bring two

full years of Veterans experience in basketball, and Robertson led the winning

effort with 18 points.

Three other major

contributors were Mike Leger with 11 points, Bryan Hollis and Shazur Lawson

with nine points each, and Cortez Broughton with six points at crucial stages

when the Warhawks needed an offensive spark.

“We’re 11 or 12 deep,” said

Kothe. “I’m real comfortable putting those first 12 in. We don’t lose much of a

beat when they step in and keep the energy. We can keep our starters fresh that

way at the end of the game.

“We have seven seniors. We

just got the football players back. Malik does what Malik does. He brings

energy to practices and games and to the crowd. (Jonathan’s) our emotional

leader. He’s the one who plays the hardest. We follow those young men.”

Veterans sprinted out to a

14-2 lead with Robertson converting a steal from half court and causing a

second turnover for Leger’s first two points. Leger later battled inside

against Jones’ big forwards for a stick-back, and Robertson was on the

offensive boards to make a beautiful feed to Broughton.

As Kothe went to that bench,

Lawson and D.J. Rozier impressed with their defensive work, and Cortez

Broughton penetrated from the high post. His pass to Lawson helped put Veterans

up 16-10 after one period.

While the Warhawks had

issues with turnovers in the second, they were able to make offense out of

defense from plays by Rozier and Robertson. The senior scored off his own steal

for 21-14. Hollis scored a pair of field goals inside, and Lawson put in two at

the one-minute mark. Jones ended the half scoring on a takeaway, but trailed

32-23 at the break.

The Greyhounds found a way

to dictate the pace of the third period, and the Warhawk shooting turned ice

cold for several minutes. Smith made a 3-pointer and slammed in a second-chance

shot at 4:22. One more stickback from Smith tied the game 32-32 at 3:46.

But the home team never

trailed as Leger ended the Warhawk drought at 3:46. Cortez Broughton broke a

36-36 tie on a third-chance make at 1:26 and later stuck in a long 2. Though

Smith hit from the top of the key and blocked a shot in the last minute, it was

Veterans taking a 40-38 lead into the fourth.

Robertson led the final

quarter charge with five quick points. Hollis’ put-back capped a streak of

seven in a row Smith didn’t snap until the 5:28 mark with another slam. One of

the key plays, though, for Veterans was Robertson maintaining possession of the

basketball in the backcourt and Leger converting for 3 and 50-40.

Two more 3s kept the

Greyhounds in the game down by six, but Rozier shot high above Smith for a

basket at the 1:12 mark. In addition to M. Broughton’s electrifying play,

Elijah Minter added a steal and score.

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