Raiders revel in rivalry win over Comets

Jan. 4—GRAYSON — It took a half, but East Carter finally found the bottom of the net in a rivalry game at the Harold L. Holbrook Athletic Complex.

The Raiders shot 45% after halftime. Evan Goodman scored 16 of his 17 points in the final two quarters and East Carter seemed to win every 50/50 ball to upend West Carter for a 65-52 win on Thursday night.

Raiders coach Cole Brammer believed his team was ready for the challenge after navigating a tough schedule in December.

"We played that schedule to get us ready for tough district matchups," Brammer said, "and to be physical in these environments. I feel that's what prepared us. All things considered, I didn't feel like we played our best. When Ty (Scott) went down in the first two minutes of the game, it threw a wrinkle into some of the things we were trying to do. I want to give all the credit to our kids. They fought and found a way to keep the game in control."

Blake Hall added a double-double for the Raiders with 17 points and 13 rebounds. Brett Dailey and Jacob Waddell each had 12 points for the Comets. Nathan Webb led the way with 14 points.

The score remained close until midway through the third quarter. The margin reached double digits on Gavin Sexton 3. It stayed the same until Brody Boggs connected from downtown in the fourth quarter to bring West Carter back within 55-48 but they would get no closer.

West Carter coach Jeremy Webb witnessed his team compete until the final horn.

"We competed for 32 minutes," Webb said. "We've had some games where we would go five or six minutes and not play at all. We would stand and not score the basketball. Tonight, our competitiveness where we need to be physically was there. We didn't have a matchup for Blake Hall."

Jordan Fuston left the game in the first half. The Comets forward is battling an Achilles injury. Without Fuston's presence inside, the impact was felt on the backboard. The Raiders outrebounded the Comets, 40-23.

"It killed us on the glass," Webb said. "Other guys look to Jordan to rebound the ball. When he is not out there, we have a tendency to stand a little bit more. They were beating us to balls. We would get hands on balls. They have a bunch of seniors and they are a very strong group. They went in there and grabbed it and it seemed like we could not get a hold of it."

The lid stayed on the basket in the first half due to the physical nature of the contest between the rivals. East Carter shot 10 of 29 in the opening two quarters while West Carter made just 6 of its 20 shot attempts.

Quentin Johnson looks for open receivers on the football field but has found his roundball legs a month into the new season. He found a pair of open shots he liked in the first half and drained two triples to send the Raiders out to an early 11-5 lead.

"Any time you play in an East-West game, there's so much emotion that goes on," Brammer said. "You can bet that in the first quarter, it's going to be ugly and up and down. Tonight, it was the first team that settled in and goes in to make those plays."

"We had some guys do really good things," he added. "Quentin hits two 3s in the first quarter and that really settled us in. I thought Gavin gave great minutes off the bench. Credit to those guys. Evan has one point at halftime and comes out and gets 16 in the second half."

Goodman was recognized before the game after becoming the 12th Raiders player to reach 1,000 career points. He passed the mark last week at a tournament in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.

Hall hit a pair in the lane to send the East Carter lead to 17-11 midway through the second stanza. The Comets fought back to keep the score close.

Brett Dailey added two free throws and Boggs splashed a wing 3-pointer to close the gap to 20-19.

West Carter (5-8)) didn't help its cause in the closing minute of the first half. Two ill-timed turnovers led to Raiders points. Tate Scott cashed in one miscue with a layup to give East Carter (7-6) a 25-19 advantage at intermission.

Brammer said no adjustment was needed to the offensive game plan. The team needed to slow the game down. The shots eventually started falling at a rapid pace in the third quarter.

"We had an environment that you don't get to play in every night," Brammer said. "It's what I tell the guys before we play these games every year. These are fun. That's why you play high school basketball. We had a great atmosphere tonight. I want to give credit to our crowd tonight. For the guys to come out and handle that, it was good to see."

The Comets gain more experience with every game and their coach sees the new players growing into their roles.

The team made 12 of their 19 field-goal attempts in the second half.

West Carter faces another big stage at the 16th Region All "A" Classic next week at Elliott County. The Comets play the Raceland-Rose Hill Christian winner on Monday at 8.

"It's always a fun tournament to play in," Webb said. "We will see who we get on Monday. Hopefully, we can get Jordan back and be ready to go for that (event)."

W. CARTER FG FT REB TP

Dailey 4-10 2-2 1 12

Parker 1-2 0-0 3 3

Fuston 0-4 0-0 1 0

Waddell 6-9 0-0 2 12

Webb 4-8 4-6 4 14

Boggs 2-2 0-2 2 6

Lawson 0-1 2-2 1 2

Dehart 1-3 0-0 4 3

Team 5

TOTAL 18-39 8-12 23 52

FG Pct: 46.2. FT Pct: 66.7. 3-point Fgs: 8-14 (Dailey 2-4, Parker 1-2, Boggs 2-2, Lawson 0-1, Webb 2-3, Dehart 1-2) Fouls: 21. Fouled out: None. Turnovers: 9.

E.CARTER FG FT REB TP

Goodman 5-15 5-7 4 17

Hall 8-19 1-4 13 17

Ty Scott 3-6 0-0 1 8

Johnson 2-5 2-4 8 8

Ta. Scott 3-6 0-0 5 6

Steele 0-0 0-0 0 0

Layne 0-1 0-0 0 0

McGuire 0-0 0-0 0 0

Menix 0-0 0-0 0 0

Tussey 0-0 0-0 0 0

Burton 0-1 0-0 0 0

Sexton 3-7 1-1 3 9

Team 6

TOTAL 24-60 9-16 40 65

FG Pct: 40.0. FT Pct: 56.3. 3-point Fgs: 8-23 (Goodman 2-7, Hall 0-1, Ty Scott 2-5, Burton 0-1, Johnson 2-3, Sexton 2-6) Fouls: 15. Fouled out: None. Turnovers: 7.

W. CARTER 8 11 17 16 — 52

E. CARTER 11 14 20 20 — 65

Officials: Justin Middleton, Jeff Adkins, Justin Royster