Thomas Smith

Staff Reporter

PILOT MOUNTAIN — The East Surry boys held off a strong East Wilkes team last night, pulling out a 41-34 win.

East Surry jumped out to an 8-0 lead early, but East Wilkes held close, down 21-13 at half time.

East Wilkes came out strong in the second half, mounting an 8-0 run to take a 22-21 lead with 3:59 left in the third quarter behind Ethan Lyon and Chris Vannoy.

However, after falling behind 27-23 in the final minute of the third quarter East Surry would make a run of their own, starting when East Surry’s Spence Tuttle drilled a three pointer from the left elbow. After the three from Tuttle, sophomore Andrew Hunter picked up a loose ball on straight hustle, racing down court before being fouled while attempting a lay up. Hunter hit the two free throws, then, on East Surry’s next offensive possession found Spence Tuttle underneath with a nice interior pass for a lay in, giving East Surry the 30-27 lead going into the fourth quarter.

Hunter and Tuttle kept East Surry ahead in the fourth, and when Spence Tuttle hit two free throws with 36 seconds remaining to give his team a 38-34 lead the game was all but in the books with East Surry holding on for the 41-34 win.

East Surry coach Jason Anderson was pleased with his teams performance and gave credit for hard fought game from East Wilkes. He said his team weathering the third quarter East Wilkes onslaught with a run of their own was a major turning point in the game.

“I don’t think we were playing that bad, I just think they just came out and had a little bit more intensity than we did defensively but we settled down and they went on a 9-0 run and we came back and went on a 9-0 run,” Anderson said. “Those were two good defensive ball teams you got to see right there and those are the type of games I like to see. You know a lot of fans don’t like watching people play defense, but when I see kids getting after at hard as we did.”

Anderson said he thinks his team showed progression from earlier in the season when it was unable to pull out close games by holding off a good team in East Wilkes.

“I saw some positive things in the maturity of our team,” Anderson said. “Late in the ball game we did the things we needed to do to win. We took care of the ball, we came down and hit our foul shots and did things that we hadn’t done earlier in the season. I told our guys that you don’t win a lot of things in November and December, you win them in January and February and if we peak at the right time we can do some good things in the second half of the season. But I think that was a good ball club we beat tonight. They are coached very well and they play hard.”

Spence Tuttle led East Surry with 13 points, followed by Andrew Hunter with 8 points, all of which came in pivotal second half stretches.

Chris Vannoy led East Wilkes with 12 points, followed by Ethan Lyon with 9 points.

East Surry 41,

East Wilkes 34

East Surry — Spence Tuttle 13, Andrew Hunter 8, W. Tuttle 5, Marion 4, Lawson 4, Smith 3, M. Covington 2

East Wilkes — Chris Vannoy 12, Ethan Lyon 9, Bryan 6, Tharpe 4, Gregory 3