High School Basketball: Cavaliers and Knights Split Doubleheader

and met for a boys/girls doubleheader Friday with all four teams tied for first place in the county. When the evening was over, two of the teams were in first.

The girls took the court first and Century edged the Cavaliers 40-37. The second game saw South Carroll come out on top 52-30.

The Century girls improve to 6-1 in the county and 10-1 overall. South Carroll is now 5-2 and 8-4 overall.

On the boys side, South Carroll is 7-0 in the county and 12-2 overall. The loss was the first one for the season for Century, who are 6-1 in the county and 10-1 overall.

Neither side could pull away in the girls game. The score was tied 10-10 after the first quarter and the Knights led 16-15 at halftime.

Century led by three after three quarters, but couldn’t pull away, as South Carroll came back to tie the game at 29 with 3:47 left in the game. The Knights then settled down and held an eight point lead with 14 seconds left. South Carroll scored five points to get within three, but ran out of time.

Jamie Clark scored five of Century’s last 11 points. Clark led the Knights with 16 points while Tess Nichols had 10 points. Senior Alice Mercer had six points, Cassidy Jones tossed in four points, Haley Bordner had two and Brooke Snyder and Angela Flister each had one point each.

"Defensively, I thought played a pretty good ball. We didn’t have a good shooting night all the time, but the kids really worked hard," said Century coach Joel Beard. 

"The next time we play it could easily be them by three. They are well coached, they play hard. I thought everyone of my kids out there tonight really worked hard. Now we didn’t play perfect but we had really nice effort."

Nicole Heim led South Carroll with 20 points as the only Cavalier in double figures. Nicole Levy had eight points, Makeba Ndifang had six, Kristine Tennyson collected two and Kaitlin Duffy had one point.

"I thought a couple of turnovers and some early free throws caught up with us later on in the game, but, I thought it was a good game. I thought both teams gave it what they had," South Carroll coach Liz Padgett

South Carroll behind the scoring of Ryan Tate ran out to a 15-5 lead after the first eight minutes of the boys game. Tate tallied 12 of the Cavaliers 15 points.

"I am really proud of my guys. They just focused," said South Carroll coach Doug Goff. "They pulled together all week. We had three games this week, but we have been practicing for this team since Saturday. They have been focusing and talking in the locker room, meeting after I am done meeting with them. They are really focused right now and it showed out there." 

After halftime, South Carroll scored two baskets to go up 34-14. Century called a timeout and then notched two baskets. The Cavaliers outscored the Knights 10-6 for the rest of the quarter to lead 44-25 going into the final quarter.

Century scored five points in the final eight minutes of play as South Carroll slowed down the pace to take the victory.

"They are a good team. They moved the ball well," said Century coach George Wunder. "They shot the ball well tonight. I thought we forced it a little bit offensively early and once you get yourself in a deep hole against a team like South Carroll it’s tough to get out of that. They are a very well coached team. They played great defense tonight. They beat us on both ends of the court tonight."

Tate led the Cavaliers with 22 points while Gavin McTavish knocked down 18 points. Also scoring for South Carroll was Dan Mullen with five points and Ethan McBryde and Tyler Alcid each had two points each.

"That team over there is pretty good and we played the best game we have played all year. They are going to regroup and come back," said Goff.

Mitch Sleight topped the Knights with 12 points while teammate Michael Austin had eight points, Billy Dickman had six and Chris Tan had four points.