COLONEL BOYS FALL TO HAWKS, 72-69

February 10, 2012

By Robert Stocks

STEPHENS CITY- Facing an 11-point deficit early in the fourth quarter against James Wood in the Northwestern District tournament play-in game, Skyline coach Sonny Dyke knew he needed to make a switch.

The Hawks had just given up 28 third-quarter points to the fifth-seeded Colonels, and Dyke went to a full-court press.

That defensive switch by Skyline paid dividends, limiting the Colonels to just eight points in the fourth quarter and back-to-back layups from Aaron Jeremiah in the final 30 seconds helped the Hawks rally for a 72-69 victory over James Wood at Sherando High School Thursday night.

Ryan Dyke and Joey Neidigh scored 20 points apiece, helping Skyline (13-8) exact a little revenge after James Wood (9-14) bounced the Hawks a season ago in the tournament play-in game on their homecourt.

But this time the difference proved to be the Hawks' defense during the fourth quarter.

"The press for us was really good," said Dyke, whose team advances to face top-seeded Handley in Tuesday night's semifinal round. "It was the first time we've used that in a game this season. We work against it a lot [in practice] because we know we're going to be pressed. We thought it might be something we'd like and at that point in the game [we're] a little desperate and we had to do some things differently to make something happen."

The Colonels appeared in control after Chad Potter buried a 3-pointer at the start of the fourth quarter to stake James Wood to a 64-53 advantage.

From there, however, the Colonels made just two more field goals during the final eight minutes.

The Hawks were able to score easy buckets in transition, getting a pair of layups from Ryan Dyke and then two more layups from Jeremiah to cut the Colonels' lead to 66-63.

After Neidigh hit the second of two free throws, a steal by Skyline's Kylmen Breeden (10 points) and a putback by Neidigh tied it at 66-66 with 3:10 left.

After back-to-back turnovers with 2:41 remaining, James Wood tried to work the clock and drained more than a minute before Colonels coach Al Smith called for a timeout with 1:34 to go.

After the timeout, Breeden's steal and layup put Skyline ahead 68-66 with 1:20 left.

James Wood junior guard Michael Carter answered on the next trip down the floor, burying a 3-pointer to put the Colonels back on top 69-68 with 1:01 remaining.

Following a Skyline timeout with 53 seconds left, the Hawks tried to set up an inside look for Ryan Dyke, but Jeremiah found an open lane for a layup to put Skyline back on top 70-69 with 26 seconds to go.

With 11 seconds left, the Colonels called for a timeout. Cam Butler in-bounded the ball to Ryland Williams but Skyline's Dayvon Haight tipped the ball away near midcourt and Jeremiah corralled the loose ball and went in for any easy layup just before the buzzer.

"It gives us some momentum to go into Handley on Tuesday," said Jeremiah, who scored eight of his 13 points during the fourth quarter. "We needed this win. We hadn't won in like two weeks. We needed a win - finally."

The Hawks had lost five of their last six coming into Thursday night's game, but despite their recent struggles they overcame an 11-point deficit in the fourth quarter to stun the Colonels.

"It showed a heck of a lot of guts by our kids," Sonny Dyke added. "... For our kids to go out there - it was pretty much five kids that played the whole game - they had to go out and press full court like that and in half-court situations. To come from behind in that amount of time it says a lot about our character and a lot about our conditioning. I'm just really thrilled for the kids."

The Colonels struggled to take care of the ball during the fourth quarter, but Wood also struggled shooting from the field - especially from 3-point range. James Wood missed its first 16 three-point attempts, going just 1 for 16 in the first half - but still led 33-31 at the break.

"We picked a bad night to have a poor shooting night," Smith said. "I think we were 4 of 26 or something like that from beyond the 3-point line and that's not very good.

"But our guys gave great effort tonight and battled right up until the very end. A shot falls here or there and we have a different outcome tonight than what happened. But Skyline plays hard like they always do, and they found a way to win right there at the end."

Smith said the fourth quarter was the first time all season the Colonels were held to single digits.

"What'd we get, seven points in the fourth quarter or eight," Smith asked. "That's probably one of the worst quarters we've had the entire season. Matter of fact, I think it is - that's the lowest point production we've had in one quarter. It's a bad time to have [that]."

Potter scored a team-high 18 to lead four Colonels in double figures. Ryland Williams added 17 points and four assists, T.J. Bruce chipped in with 16 points, eight rebounds and five steals and Carter finished with 12 points.

"We just took some dumb shots and we couldn't take care of the ball," Potter said. "That's what killed us down the stretch. I think we just got too comfortable.

"When shots aren't falling, we can't let that affect our defense and that's been a problem all year."

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