By Johnny Sanders, Sports Editor
PINSON – Before tipoff, Caleb White and Terry Conor Jr. were recognized for eclipsing 1000 points in their career. White accomplished the feat during Pinson’s win earlier in the week over McAdory. Conor did the same thing, but it took him one more game as he made the accomplishment in the win over Fairfield in the MLK Basketball Classic. Also of note, Head Coach Darrell Barber got his 300th win on Wednesday night in the 256/205 Challenge against #7 ranked Huntsville High School.
The top-ranked Pinson Valley Indians (now 44th nationally) capped off a very busy week with a dominant win over the visiting Blue Devils from Mortimer Jordan Thursday night, beating them by 31 points.
When you’re the best team in the state and two of your highest scoring players are banged up and need a night off, what do you do? You play lock-down defense and that is precisely what Pinson did in the first half of Thursday’s game.
In the first quarter, the Indians allowed just 2 points by the Devils. Led by Ray McCants’ 5 points and Terry Coner and Amari Bowens’ 4 each, the Indians put up 17 points in the first period of the game.
The Devils found a little bit of success from outside in the second, hitting 2 three-pointers to go with a free throw, totaling 7 points for the quarter. Conor continued his scoring in the second, leading the Indians with 9 of their 14 points heading into the half. The Indians would lead 31-9 after the first half was over.
The Blue Devils would come out of the locker room firing on all cylinders from behind the arc, hitting 3 three-pointers right out of the gate and managing to put up 17 points in the third period. Not to be outdone though, Conor would lead his team again in the quarter with 8 points to go with McCants’ 7. Pinson would outscore Mortimer Jordan 21-17, leading to a 52-26 advantage heading into the final quarter.
Pinson would slow down the scoring a bit in the fourth, outscoring the visitors 16-11 to finish them off by a score of 68-37. Cam Jennings would lead his team with 5 points in the final period with McCants scoring 3 of his own.
On the night, Terry Conor Jr. would lead all scorers with 23 points. Ray McCants would add 15 of his own to go with 10 from Clyde Walters.
“It means a lot. We played 4 games in 6 days this week,” said Coach Darrell Barber. “We’ve been beat up a little bit. We lost Austin (Conor) and wanted to rest some guys, so that’s why we didn’t play Caleb (White). It was a good win for us. It gave us a chance to get some minutes for some guys who don’t normally play and I was proud of our effort.”
The Indians’ record continues to be flawless, improving to 21-0. They will get a bit of a break before a rivalry game Tuesday night at Clay-Chalkville.