Cyclones eliminated from regional tournament

YORK — Eastern View’s first boys basketball season came to an end on Wednesday, when it lost 69-44 at Tabb in the Region-I Division 4 semifinals.

The host Tigers had made only 4-of-15 shots when the game was delayed several minutes during the second quarter to check out a noisy fire alarm in the school. They made 22 of 32 after resumption of play and rolled into the regional championship game.

The victory moves the Tigers into the Division 4 state tournament quarterfinals, set for March 6 or 7. To host that game the Tigers (23-4) will have to win at Courtland, near Fredericksburg, tonight at 8 p.m. in the regional final.

Don Smalls, who scored 35 points in the Tigers’ regional quarterfinal victory, led the way again with 26 points. Teammates Steve Sherwood (14 points), Nick Mims (13 points) and Emmanuel Jones (10 points) joined him in double figures.

Those numbers were difficult to envision when the Tigers fell behind 12-3 in the first four minutes. Early jitters and the Cyclones physicality and quickness in their trapping defenses were the primary reasons.

The Cyclones (16-10) forced the Tigers into 1-of-5 shooting and five turnovers during that stretch. Roger Davis (eight points) pounded the boards hard early on, and scored four of the Cyclones’ first 12 points.

“Nerves definitely got to us,” said Mims, who led Tabb with eight rebounds. “In the beginning we weren’t coming to the ball well.
“Coach (Doug) Baggett called a timeout and told us to tighten things up.”

Baggett got another chance to relay that message when the alarm went off. The Tigers had cut the deficit to 17-13, but had already turned the ball over 11 times and were still rushing their shots.

“That did it,” Baggett joked. “We played better after that.”

The Tigers did finish the first half on a hot streak, making five of their final six shots to take a 27-22 lead at intermission. The Cyclones were hurt by the absence of Drayton Shanks, who played only two minutes before intermission because of foul trouble.

Smalls scored 10 points as the Tigers outscored the Cyclones 15-5 to finish the first half.

“It was just another night where I played my game,” said Smalls who had seven rebounds, three blocks and two steals to go with his 26 points. “It was either go hard or go home, and I wanted to go to states.”

The Tigers continued their hot shooting in the third quarter, when they were 9-of-12 from the field in building a 50-27 lead. Most of the baskets came at close range or on the break, as point guard Marcel Magee dished out six of his eight assists in the third quarter.

“They were overaggressive,” Magee said of the Cyclones’ traps. “They were jumping out and double-teaming the ball, so I was able to get the ball to the open man.”
Eastern View coach Walter Wright added, “We seemed to have the momentum early, but Tabb is a solid team. They stayed calm and adjusted to our traps.
“Then they turned up the intensity, and seemed to get every loose ball and offensive rebound. It was hard to overcome that deficit.”

The Cyclones attempted to do that by launching a bunch of long shots against several Tabb defensive looks that included the triangle-and-two. Mo Safren buried a couple of jumpers in scoring seven of his 12 points in the final quarter, but the Cyclones were behind by 20 or more points virtually the entire period.

“I’m tremendously happy with the first year of our program,” Wright said. “Our young men have grown tremendously in discipline and basketball ability.”