Red Tornadoes blow out Watauga in league opener

Hickory High’s boys served early notice they intend to defend their Northwestern 3A-4A basketball title.

In a conference opener, the Red Tornadoes sprinted quickly to a big lead and routed visiting Watauga 67-36.

Hickory (6-2, 1-0 Northwestern 3A-4A) showed little effect from Wednesday night’s triple-overtime game – a 90-86 road win over Winston-Salem Reagan.

 After Jake Pifer scored the game’s opening bucket for the Pioneers, Hickory scored 20 straight points to essentially put the game out of reach.

After Zach Jarrett hit a runner to tie the game, Jalen Byrd put Hickory ahead for good by taking a rebound and dribbling the length of the floor for an easy layup. Byrd had five of the game’s first six rebounds and fed outlet passes to start the Red Tornadoes’ fast break.

“He rebounds the ball very well from the guard position,” said Hickory head coach coach Shawn Johnson of Byrd, who finished with eight points, seven rebounds and two steals.  “He plays a lot bigger than what he is.  He can run the 1 (point guard), he can run the 2 (shooting guard).

“He does a lot of good things for us. … As far as Jalen goes, we know what we are going to get out of him every night.”

Watauga (4-3, 1-1) ran into some tough luck early, missing several open shots in the lane.

 Sensing the game getting out of hand, the Pioneers were satisfied to take the first open shot, allowing Hickory to take advantage on the glass to set its offense.  The Pioneers hit one of 14 shots in the first quarter and they were outrebounded 13-3.

“We wanted to come out and make sure we had a great effort defensively, just to try to make sure that we could turn it into some offense,” said Johnson.  “We did a good job of that.”

The good times continued to roll in the second quarter for the Red Tornadoes, and they unleashed a tight man-to-man defense on the perimeter that forced 10 turnovers (eight via steals).

Hickory increased its lead to 39-10 at halftime.  In the first half, Hickory made 17 of 3 shots, many of them layups.

“Tonight was a layup drill the whole first half,” said Watauga head coach Ron Sanders.  “You can’t give up 28 points in one half on layups and expect to have a chance to win a ball game.

“You’ve got to give Hickory all the credit in the world.  They took it to us and we took it.  That’s all we did, just stand there and watch it.”

The Pioneers managed to cut the margin to 23 early in the third quarter, but the Red Tornadoes took a 55-27 lead after three quarters and cleared the bench for much of the fourth quarter.

Jarrett led Hickory’s scoring with nine points as 13 players scored for the Red Tornadoes.

Watauga’s Allen Koppenhaver led all scorers with 10 points.

HICKORY 66 WATAUGA 27

The Red Tornadoes ran their record to 8-0 by winning their conference opener.

After the Pioneers took a 10-8 lead, Danasia Witherspoon hit a free throw, then finished a layup off a fast break to give Hickory the lead for good.

Witherspoon finished the first quarter with 15 points, seven steals, three rebounds and two assist to help lead Hickory to a 25-10 advantage in the opening eight minutes. She finished with a game-high 22 points and nine steals.

Hickory forced 33 turnovers, 26 of them coming on steals.

Yazmen Hannah chipped in 19 points for the Red Tornadoes.

Watauga (2-5, 1-1) was led by Savanna Wood, who had seven points.