Kelly Westmoreland/Special to The News
Mount Airy’s Tanner Joyce drives past Winston-Salem Prep’s Mike Hughes in the first half Tuesday. Joyce scored 13 points in the third quarter.
Kelly Westmoreland/Special to The News
Taylor Bobbitt leaps high to shoot over the long arms of 6-foot-7 Coye Simmons. Bobbitt gave the Bears a lift with some baskets in the first half.
It looked like a complete mismatch on paper: one of the best teams in the state against a squad suffering a late-season slump.
Then for three and a half quarters, the Mount Airy Bears played like the best team before falling in overtime 62-54 to Winston-Salem Prep.
The Phoenix came into the game with only one loss all season, a triple-overtime game with West Stokes, which Prep avenged during their regular-season matchup with a 32-point blowout.
“They are the best team in the state in 1A,” said assistant coach Erette Bobbitt. Many teams that play Prep are outgunned at every position, he noted.
“Our players, they really put it out there tonight,” he said. They battled the taller Phoenix on the boards all night.
“They fought, and there was no quit in them,” the assistant said. “There was no sense in their eyes, ‘Oh, we’re playing Winston-Salem Prep!’”
The foundation for this performance came in the first meeting Jan. 6, noted Coach Kevin Spainhour. Prep led 13-9 after one, but the Bears scored 19 points in the second quarter and saw they could compete.
Even though the game got away from the Bears in the third quarter, some of that confidence carried over, Spainhour said.
“We’ve been talking about what it means to be a Mount Airy basketball player,” he said. “Taking pride in how we play and all the tradition that we have.” Any alumni in attendance Tuesday should have been proud, too.
“We want to focus on playing on how Mount Airy teams should play,” he said, which means going hard, being unselfish and having discipline. “We played very smart last night.”
“It was good that Taylor went out there and started early,” Bobbitt said of his younger sibling. Too many times Taylor looks to get his teammates started and isn’t aggressive early, he noted.
“In the third quarter it was Tanner Joyce’s turn,” Bobbitt said. Mount Airy built a slim first-half lead with its leading scorer having only two points at the break.
Then in the third quarter, Joyce posted 13 points as the Bears went up 10 at 37-27.
The Phoenix began to creep back in, then eventually caught up at 52-all with 1:58 left.
Joyce put up a short floater over the 6-foot-7 Coye Simmons for a two-point lead with less than a minute to go.
Prep scored with less than 30 seconds to tie the game.
Mount Airy ran the clock down to 8 seconds and called a timeout. The final shot didn’t fall, and the game went into overtime.
In the extra period, Mount Airy was gassed and didn’t score as Prep won 62-54.
Down the stretch, Prep point guard Raekwon Harney seemed to say “This my game to win,” said Bobbitt.
“I don’t know how he hit some of his shots,” he noted. “He was parallel with the ground on one shot.”
One Bear who came up big was center Sean Best, who sometimes sits when Spainhour wants to go small.
“Sean hit some big shots for us,” said Bobbitt. “He rebounded the ball well. … He went above and beyond what we wanted him to do.”
“We did everything to win the game except score more points at the end,” said Spainhour. The Bears outplayed Prep for almost the entire game, but had some missed free throws and a couple of costly turnovers down the stretch, he said.
“The result is not what we wanted, but we have nothing to hang our heads about,” added Bobbitt.
Mount Airy finishes the regular season Friday with Senior Night against Bishop McGuinness. Then next week, the Bears could have a rematch with Prep in the conference tournament.
“This is good for our team to know we can be up 10,” said Bobbitt. “It’s good for our team to have that approach and that mentality.”
Reach Jeff Linville at jlinville@heartlandpublications.com or at 719-1920.
Post a Comment
