By Bobby Mathews, Sports Editor
MOODY — A pattern emerges when it comes to the Springville Tigers basketball team: It doesn’t matter what one does to them in the first half. Coming out of the break, the Tigers are — simply put — dangerous. On Friday night against a very good Moody team, Springville held the Blue Devils to four points in the fourth quarter en route to a 10-point victory, 48-38.
In the first half, the Blue Devils controlled the tipoff and much of the game. Junior Carson Dillashaw clashed with Springville’s tough power forward Derek Moore, and in the early going it looked like Dillashaw might have his number. The Blue Devils jumped out to a 7-0 lead after Dillashaw went to work in the paint to open the scoring and then Caden Helms hit a three-pointer from the left side of the floor. Dillashaw scored again, and Moody had the momentum.
But Springville is 18-2 on the season so far for a reason. The Tigers battled back and cut the lead to a single point by the end of the first period, 12-11.
“I told you before the game that I thought it was going to be a tough game,” said Springville head coach Jeremy Monceaux after the game. “They (the Blue Devils) have been playing better. We gotta get everybody on the same page and playing well. I thought when we played well in the games before tonight, we’ve got 10-12 guys who are contributing. Right now we’ve got a few guys who aren’t playing their best basketball.”
The Blue Devils kept the lead for most of the second quarter, pushing out to a 16-11 lead at one point when Morgan Pinkney scored inside with nearly seven minutes remaining in the half. But team captain Mason Trimm got into foul trouble, and the Blue Devils had to take one of their most dynamic players off the court for long stretches of the game.
The Tigers tied it at 16 with Moore’s layup inside with 3:33 to go in the half, but Helms hit another three to help Moody regain the lead. The Blue Devils took a 22-20 lead into the break.
After that, it was all Springville in the third quarter. The Tigers allowed only four points in the third quarter while scoring 14 points of their own.
“They weren’t really doing anthing different in that third quarter,” Moody head coach Chad Bates said. “We just missed shots. We got some good looks, and they didn’t go in.”
Moore led all scorers with 14 points, while Gavin Gooch had 12 and Garrett Howard had 8 for Springville.
Moore, a 6-6 power forward, is trying to make the most of his senior season. His junior year was cut short by a difficult lower leg injury.
“It means the world to me to be able to come back like this,” Moore said. “I’m thankful for all the support from the Springville community for me and my family, just helping me to come back and have that extra surge and come back even stronger.”.”
Helms scored 11 for Moody, while Dillashaw put in 9 and Trimm scored 7.