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Scottsboro boys edge Fort Payne

By Lew Gilliland
The Times-Journal

Published December 2, 2009

The Fort Payne boys impressed head coach Anthony Reid with their effort Tuesday night. Now, they’ve just got to fix the execution.

The host Wildcats missed out on an opportunity to open their area schedule with a win. Instead, Scottsboro moved in front for good early in the fourth quarter and went on to a 71-59 victory in a matchup of struggling Class 5A, Area 14 high school basketball teams.

Fort Payne (1-4, 0-1) trailed by as many as 11 points during a foul-prone first half — the Cats were whistled for 16, and Scottsboro (2-6, 1-1) was in the double bonus before the end of the opening quarter — but cut the margin to 33-29 at halftime and took the lead late in the third period.

A Reggie Stover 3-pointer gave Fort Payne a 47-46 edge with 59 seconds left in the quarter, but two Jacob Lewis free throws sent Scottsboro into the fourth period with a one-point advantage.

“I think our kids played hard,” Reid said. “They were trying their best to be successful, but we just made way too many mistakes and committed way too many fouls. They kept fighting and fighting and fighting, we just could never get one break to go our way.”

LaDarin Jones paced Fort Payne with 15 points. Stover finished with 11. Trey O’Daniel closed with nine, and Josh Lankford had eight.

Both teams came into the game with one win, and both had trouble handling the ball. Scottsboro was guilty of 33 turnovers, while Fort Payne committed 30.

However, the visitors did a better job drawing fouls and had a huge advantage at the free throw line. Scottsboro made 33 of 49 free throws. Fort Payne converted 9 of 19.

“It hurts because I think the kids put a lot of effort into [the game],” Reid said of losing the area opener. “Scottsboro handled themselves real well. They came out and played right at us.”

Fort Payne pulled even at 48-all on a Lynus Ryan foul shot with 7:14 remaining, but Ben Word drained two for Scottsboro, putting his team in front to stay at 50-48 at the 7:10 mark.

A Lewis 3-pointer pushed the margin to 56-48 with 6:08 left. Jones sank two free throws to cut the advantage to 58-55 with 3:38 to go, but Fort Payne would get no closer.

Word made another free throw to push the lead into double digits at 69-59 with 27.5 seconds remaining.

“I’m not giving up on these kids,” Reid said. “We’re going to keep working. It sometimes takes some adversity to make a good basketball team. It’s just going to take some more time.”

Word paced Scottsboro with 24 points. Lewis had 14, and Josh Paradise and Samuel Douglas collected 10 apiece.

Fyffe 70,
Sylvania 42

Ryan Tramel led Fyffe with 24 points and four steals to push the Red Devils past Sylvania Tuesday night.

For Fyffe (4-1), Jesse Martin had 14 points with 10 rebounds and Taylor Thrash scored 11. Josh Barksdale had 10 points and Jesse Townsel had eight points and 10 assists.

Sylvania (5-2) was led by Donavan Dalton with 13 points.

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The Fort Payne Times-Journal | Publisher: J.D. Davidson

811 Greenhill Blvd.NW, Fort Payne, Alabama 35967 | Tel: 256-845-2550 | Email