By Johnny Sanders, Sports Editor
PINSON – The top-ranked Pinson Valley Indians welcomed the Clay Chalkville Cougars into Mike Dutton Gym on Friday night for a key region matchup, looking to stay undefeated on the season. Mission accomplished. Despite a slow start, the Indians pulled away late and never looked back, defeating their rivals 72-46 in front of a standing room only crowd.
“I thought our team’s performance was ok,” said Clay Coach Chris Richardson. “It’s always a tough place to come play just because of the atmosphere. It’s a small gym. If you’re a ball player, you want to play in this game. They play and shoot very well here. But we had just an ok to bad performance”
The first quarter started with a bang as Pinson’s Caleb White put up the game’s first points with a thunderous slam dunk that got the fans into the game quickly. But that quickly fizzled out as the teams would both struggle to score in the first period. Pinson would outscore Clay 13-8 in the quarter with Caleb White and Chauncey Thirkill putting up 4 points each to lead the Indians, while 4 different Cougars would spread the load, scoring 2 points each.
Both offenses would find some rhythm in the second quarter as Pinson scored 20 and the Cougars put 16 points on the board. The Indians’ Austin Connor started his phenomenal night by scoring 11 points in the second quarter. Clay’s Tiawan Hardy Jr got 7 points to lead the Cougars in the quarter. The halftime score would be 33-24 with Pinson leading.
Coming out of the locker room, Pinson would keep the momentum going, but the Indians’ defense would smother Clay in the third quarter, holding them to just 6 points while scoring 17 of their own. Pinson was led by Caleb White, who had 6 points. The Cougars’ Hardy joined Victor Ordiari and Kevin Kirk with 2 points each to make up the 6 points scored in the third. Pinson would head into the final period with a 50-20 lead.
Clay would score 16 again in the fourth quarter, but it would not be enough to overcome the Pinson offense, who put up 22 of their own. Austin Connor would own the night in the fourth, scoring 15 of his team’s points for the period. Clay would once again spread out the scoring with 6 different players getting in on the scoring. Colin Owens led the team with 4 for the quarter.
Pinson’s leading scorer was no surprise as Austin Connor put up a whopping 27 points followed by Amarion Bowens with 11. Clay was led on the night by Tiawan Hardy Jr with 11 points followed by Kevin Kirk with 7.
“I wasn’t too pleased with the first two quarters at all,” said Darrell Barber, Pinson’s coach. “We knew it would be a dog fight. It’s an area game, it’s a rivalry game. Regardless of records, we knew they were going to come in here and play hard. In the third quarter we held them to 6 points and that’s the type of defense I wanted to see coming out of the half.”
“It’s tough. Finding a way to motivate these guys. We know we are going to get everyone’s best each night. We have to stay motivated and stay humble. We just have to keep working.”
The Indians turn around Saturday night and play Haleyville in an attempt to stay perfect on the season while the Cougars host Hueytown on Wednesday night.