Maroons top Chilhowie

By JIM CUNNINGHAM/Staff

The George Wythe Maroons won their seventh consecutive Hogoheegee District boys’ basketball tournament by thumping Chilhowie 97-40 Friday night at Marion Senior High School.
The Maroons had already wrapped up a berth in the regionals by winning the regular season title with a 10-0 mark after dominating the other district teams. GW improved to 22-2 with the win and will host a first round game tonight at 7 p.m. against Patrick Henry.
The winner of that game will play the winner of the Chilhowie-Auburn game at 6 p.m. on Friday at Lord Botetourt High School in Daleville in the region semifinals. The Region C, Division 2 finals will be held Saturday at Lord Botetourt High School.
Against Chilhowie on Friday night, George Wythe got off to an uncharacteristic slow start. Aaron Lundy put back a missed shot for Chilhowie in the opening seconds of the game for a 2-0 CHS lead that stood for nearly two minutes until Tennis Simon swished two free throws with 6:02 left in the first period to tie the game.
Then the Maroons revved up their game and their fans in a matter of seconds as Simon took a pass from Ethan Mills with a couple of steps ahead of the Chilhowie defense and slammed the ball through the net to give GW a lead that kept expanding as the game went on.
Simon added another drive inside and two more free throws to account for all eight of GW’s points for an 8-2 lead.
Simon ended up as GW’s top scorer with 19 points. Robert Yonce added 15 points. Both Simon and Yonce connected on three 3-point shots.
Chilhowie was led by Jordan Polk with 17 points.
The Maroons continued with their high intensity offense and pressure defense to practically put the game away at the end of the first quarter with a 24-5 lead.
GW achieved its first 30-point plus advantage after Simon connected on back-to-back three-pointers to put the Maroons up 42-11 about midway in the second quarter.
A few moments later, GW went up by 35 after back-to-back layups by Mills (the second one coming on a nice behind-the-back pass from Brandon Davis) and then a bucket by Tristan Boysaw to make it 48-13.
When the lead approached 50 points early in the third quarter, most of the GW starters took the bench for the rest of the game.

Chilhowie 5 13 6 16 – 40
George Wythe 24 33 22 18 – 97

Chilhowie – Marcus Little 0 2-2 2, Ethan Mason 1 0-0 2, Tyler Lundy 2 0-0 4, M.J. Beverly 1 2-2 4, Tuff Williams 1 0-2 2, Jordan Polk (one 3-pointer) 6 2-3 17, Aaron Clampitt 1 0-0 2, A.J. Smith 2 0-0 4, Aaron Lundy 1 0-1 2, Adam Martin 0 1-2 1.
George Wythe – Ethan Mills 2 0-0 4, Brandon Davis (one 3-pointer) 2 2-2 9, Waleed Ershad 4 1-2 9, Brett Grimes 1 0-0 2, Devin Smith (one 3-pointer) 1 0-0 5, Robert Yonce (three 3-pointers) 3 0-0 15, Kenneth Waugh (one 3-pointer) 3 0-0 9, Tristan Boysaw 3 0-0 6, Keith Edwards 1 0-0 2, Tennis Simon (three 3-pointers) 3 4-4 19, Daniel Meade 1 0-0 2, Will Sawyers 4 1-3 9, Drew Lester 3 0-0 6.
(T – 1:09)