“I thought we played extremely hard — we didn’t always play well tonight, but a lot of that has to do with how aggressive Bell County plays,” said Claiborne coach Don Harville. “In all fairness to them and not to take anything away from our team, but I understand they’ve got two or three kids playing football right now. They’re going to have to be reckoned with before the season’s over.”
Dennis Ramsey scored seven of his game-high 16 points in the first period as the Bulldogs (4-0) opened up a five-point lead and never looked back.
“He played really well early and got some big rebounds and big baskets,” Harville said of Ramsey. “He played the way he’s supposed to play. It’s nothing he should gloat over, it’s something he should build on.”
Three-pointers from Clark DeBusk and David Sweet helped Claiborne take a 15-10 lead after one period.
Bell County, missing several players still working with the football team, struggled with their passing in the first half. Claiborne used a late spurt to take a 10-point lead into the half, 27-17.
“We’re young right now and at the wrong positions,” Bobcat coach Lewis Morris said. “Claiborne did a good job of keeping us mixed up on defense.
“We did a terrible job of passing the basketball and getting in our spots. We didn’t do a whole good of anything. We looked like a bunch of freshmen and played scared — and that’s from our seniors all the way down.”
Brian Robbins and George Wilson scored five points each in the third quarter and Seth Chambers added four, but Bell could get no closer than seven points the rest of the way.
“I didn’t do a good job coaching, they didn’t do a good job playing, it was a bad night,” Morris said. “Hopefully things will get better, we’re going to keep working. We’ll get those football players back after they win the state and by tournament time we’ll be able to play a little bit. But right now we’re not very good.”
Chambers led Bell with 14 points, Robbins had 13 and Wilson added 11.
Joining Ramsey in double figures for Claiborne were Sweet with 13 DeBusk with 11.
Bell County (0-1) will not play their scheduled game Friday against Leslie County and will return to action next Tuesday at Pulaski County.
Claiborne will try and keep their strong start going Friday at home against Morristown West.
Harville said he’s pleased with his team’s early season performance and the effort his player are giving.
“We feel good about where we are right now. Obviously we’ve got a ways to go and there are going to be bumps in the road,” he said. “This team is pretty mature even though we’ve got some young kids. That’s what I like about them is their mental toughness.
“We’re just going to try and build on things as we go and hopefully at the end we’ll be as good as we can be.”
———
Claiborne 15 12 13 15 — 55
Bell County 10 7 14 15 — 46
CLAIBORNE (55): Dennis Ramsey 16, David Sweet 13, Clark DeBusk 11, Erik Stone 7, Josh Taylor 6, Aaran Noe 2.
BELL COUNTY (46): Seth Chambers 14, Brian Robbins 13, George Wilson 11, Mitchell Mayes 3, Kyle Lee 3, Ricky Pletcher 2, Turner Lefevers 0, Ryan Cox 0, James Brown 0.
Above: Bell County’s Brian Robbins gets up close and personal with Claiborne’s Josh Taylor during action in Tuesday’s game. Robbins scored 13 points for Bell while Taylor had six for Bulldogs. Claiborne won the game 55-46. (JAY COMPTON/Daily News)
Post a Comment
