Dixie Loses Player for Season in Loss.

Dixie lost the game and a valuable player this past week in a pitched battle against league leading Waynesville. The Hounds spotted the home town team a generous first half lead and then had to fight in the second half to claw their way back into the game. The Hounds were thrown off by the Spartan half court zone defense and after adjusting to it, they mounted a challenge that fell short in the last half of the game.

The Hounds were able to slow down Luke Creditt, who had been scoring over 20 points per game. That was one of the keys to the game that coach Creamer was focused on. Matt Isaacs drew this assignment and held Creditt to just 10 points on the night. But Waynesville had other players who picked up the slack – Ty Black (13 points) and Steven Jeffries(18 points). Isaacs had a good night offensively as well, scoring 16 points himself.

The team had to play catch up all night. They were down 8 in the first quarter and were down 31-19 at the break. But the team made some adjustments at half time and mounted a furious comeback closing to within 2 points. During the intense play in the second half Ryan Gabbard went down and had to leave the game. It was later discovered that a bone in his leg was fractured and so the seniors season will end on the operating table as a pin will need to be inserted for the leg to set and heal properly. Ryan had been leading the team in scoring and so he will be missed.

Dixie earnestly tried to regain their momentum, but Waynesville was able to pull ahead. And the Hounds had to resort to fouling, but Waynesville calmly sunk their shots to extend their lead. When the game ended, Waynesville won 59-48.

Coach Creamer commented after the game, “We did a good job against Luke Credit - we executed our game plan against him, but they have a lot of offensive firepower and a couple of other kids stepped it up. We struggled offensively to put the ball in the hole the first half. We got looks we wanted, but just weren’t hitting our shots. They did go into a 2-3 zone - that was unexpected from them and that crossed us up a little bit. “

He continued, “After halftime we adjusted and did a phenomenal job to open the second half. We had a couple of possessions where we could have tied or maybe even taken the lead, but we just couldn’t get over the hump. To their credit they made free throws down the stretch to extend the lead back out to double figures. Matt Isaacs had a phenomenal effort for us against Creditt, he drew the man to man match up. And he turned around scored 16 points at the other end.”

What to expect from Eaton, “They are starting to get all their personnel back, they didn’t have everyone at the start of the year. They have an excellent athlete in Cole French. They have as much size as anyone that we have played against. It is a challenge for us – any time you have to go on the road in a SWBL cross over game it’s going to be tough. We look forward to playing against them. “ Dixie plays at Eaton on December 30th.

Scoring for Dixie: Barnett 3, Gabbard 12, J. Isaacs 4, M Isaacs 16, Moore 9, Smiley 4