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Basketball Ends Season At Livingston

Posted on Tuesday, February 26, 2013 at 1:27 pm

Both Grundy basketball teams traveled to Livingston Academy Friday night for the first round of the Region 4 AA tournament and both saw their seasons end at the hands of the Wildcats. The Lady Jackets finished the season with an 11-20 record. The men finished 8-19.

Girls: Livingston Acad. 66 – Grundy 42

The Lady Jackets kept it a game until midway in the third quarter when the Lady Wildcats pulled away. An injury to Kelsey Arbuckle shook the Grundy girls up and took some of the fire out of their game. Down 32-20 at the half Grundy had cut the lead to as close as four points before Arbuckle hit her head hard on the floor and shook the team up.

“We were facing the number one seed out of one of the toughest districts in the state. If you look at any message boards or web sites they’re picked to be in the state tournament. We knew going in it was going to be a tough battle. In the beginning of the third when Kelsey got hurt I think it was more of a mental thing for the team. Then of course we missed some box-outs and that gave them second and third chances and they made a run on us then. We had trouble with turnovers and being able to settle down and handle it. I’m very proud of our improvement. We played this team at camp during the summer and the score was 85-13. You can see how much they’ve improved. Next year is going to be a test to see who improves the best. Even Livingston is young and most in their district. It’s just going to be who wants to work the hardest and improve the most over the summer,” said Coach Julie Davis.

Peyton Eads led in scoring with nine. Tori Sartain had eight. Madison Rogers and Kristin Hill scored seven each with Rogers hitting a three. MiKayla Williams tossed in six with a three. Mallory Seals had four and Madison Burrows added two.

Boys: CCS 52 – Grundy 46

The Jackets were down 2-0 to open the game when Levi Miller drained a three to put them up 3-2. That would be their only lead of the night. Grundy trailed 40-26 going into the final quarter when they turned up the heat. Their 20-12 effort brought them as close as four points in the end, but not close enough as Chattanooga Christian took third place in the district with the win.

“They play a different type of basketball. They slow things down so much that it’s hard for us, once we play so much defense for so long that we can’t get in an offensive rhythm. A lot of shots weren’t falling for us early. We actually set some things up at halftime and made some decent adjustments and came out and played a lot better second half. We started pressing them there a little bit at the end and our guys really turned it up another notch. We made a couple of big plays. If a couple of shots would have gone our way it would have been closer,” said Coach Justin Bryant.

Levi Miller led Grundy with 24 including three treys. Jacob Campbell had nine all off threes. Tanner Smartt scored seven. Devan Hampton scored four and Trevor Hampton scored two.

Livingston Acad. 100 – Grundy 51

Grundy was outmatched from the start as Livingston’s freshmen were almost as good as their starting five who only played the first quarter and part of the third. The Wildcats starters posted a 37-9 first quarter before they enjoyed the view from the bench. Grundy had a better second quarter against the Livingston reserves posting a 22-17 effort to make it 54-31 at the half. The Wildcats turned the heat back up with a 31-11 third quarter on their way to the win.

“We had a couple players out but at the same time we were outmanned. They’re definitely a good basketball team. They shot the ball well. They rebounded well. They jumped well. There’s not a lot of things they didn’t do really, really good. We gave it our best shot and that’s all I can ask of the guys. We had some big moments. We had some highs and lows. We’re at a place not a lot of people thought we’d be, beating Notre Dame and getting this far. I’m real proud of the seniors and the effort they gave to the team this year,” said Coach Bryant.

Levi Miller notched most of Grundy’s points with 33 including six three pointers. Jacob Campbell had five with a three. Trevor Hampton and Trevor Rheal scored four each. Tanner Smartt added three and Terrince Bramhall scored two.