Athens unable to halt offensive prowess of top-seeded Waverly
By: Caleb McCleskey, Chloe Workman
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After their first tournament win of the season against Circleville Tuesday, the Athens Bulldogs Boys Basketball team looked to upset the Waverly Tigers on the road.
As the first quarter was under way, the Tigers looked to punish the Bulldogs on the defensive end by using a full court press for the entire game.
In the first quarter alone, the Tigers were almost able to give each starting player on the Bulldogs a turnover in the first few minutes from their defensive effort.
Later in the first quarter, the Tigers were able to go on a 12-2 run to extend their lead.
By the end of the first quarter, the Tigers were leading the Bulldogs 24-9.
In the second quarter, the Bulldogs were looking for some breathing room to try to break the Tigers full court press.
But the press proved too much for the Bulldogs, as the Tigers led the Bulldogs 41-21 at the end of the first half.
In the first half alone, the Bulldogs already had 13 turnovers.
In the second half, the Tigers wanted to finish off the Bulldogs in this quarter both on the offensive and defensive end.
On the offensive end, it seemed like the Tigers could not miss from three, and defensively they were trapping the Bulldogs everywhere on the court.
At the two minute and 19 second mark in the third quarter, the Tigers got their largest lead of the game against the Bulldogs, getting their lead 63-30.
The third quarter alone proved why the Waverly Tigers were the number 1 seed in this tournament.
By the end of the third quarter, the Bulldogs still trailed the Tigers 40-66.
With absolutely no sign of a comeback for the Bulldogs, they still played with their best effort for this game being the last game of the season for them.
The leading scorer for the game was the Bulldogs senior, Derrick Welsh, who had 17 points and 8 rebounds.
At the end of the fourth quarter, the Bulldogs fell to the Tigers 48-77.
As the Bulldogs have most of their team returning next year, they hope to improve on what they have learned from this year.