The Shadow
For the biggest part of the first half Friday night, the game plan worked.
Slow down the basketball, work the clock and take only the high percentage shot.
After intermission, the strategy unraveled.
Parry McCluer scored 30 third-quarter points and shot a Blues-hot 63 percent from the floor in the second half in a 68-30 pasting of the Covington Cougars.
Michael Watts scored a game-high 21 points to lead the Fighting Blues, who remained unbeaten in the Pioneer District (8-0) and 12-5 overall.
Tanner Paxton scored 11 points and hauled in eight rebounds for the Cougars, who dipped to 3-4 and 3-14.
“We were down eight at halftime, playing the style we wanted to,” said Covington coach Rob Bennett. “They got a couple of baskets early in the third quarter, we had a couple of turnovers and then it just all went to pot.”
Watts had 13 points in the third quarter alone for Parry McCluer, including eight in a 16-0 run that started the period.
Another 7-0 spurt minutes later finished off a 13 minute stretch where the Blues outscored their hosts 36-5.
“We had a game plan, we just didn’t execute in the second half,” Bennett added. “Parry McCluer is explosive. They’re just hard to go toe-to-toe with.”
Covington led for much of the opening eight minutes.
Chad Lipes’ three and an assist on a Phillip Lewis basket got the Cougars off to a 5-0 start.
Paxton and R.J. Jeter put together back-to-back scores later in the period for a 9-5 advantage.
The Cougars’ last lead (12-11) came early in the second quarter on a nifty assist from Lipes to Paxton in the lane for a three-point play.
But Watts scored eight points in the final six minutes of the quarter for a 22-14 halftime lead for veteran coach Nelson Fox’s Blues.
“The first half is something to build on,” Bennett said. “It’s just awful stressful on the kids to run that spread, Princeton-style offense.”
Luke Crawford added six points for Covington, Lipes had five, while Lewis and Jeter both scored four.
Zach Stinnett added 16 points for Parry McCluer, who is just one win away from knocking James River off the Pioneer District throne.
Covington finishes the regular season with a trip to Highland County on Tuesday and a home match-up with Bath County on Thursday.
Morgan Henderson scored a game-high 23 points to lead Parry McCluer to a 57-34 win in Friday’s junior varsity preliminary.
Forrest Mayberry topped the Cougars with 13 points.
Darryl Tolson added five, Derek Dressler and Ethan Pierce both scored four, Jordan Miller and Cody Givens had three each and Marcus Jeter added two.
Dressler and Tolson both had seven rebounds and Miller added five steals.
