Cubs, Owls play first of final three matchups

IAEGER — When the 2010-11 basketball season begins, the River View Panthers will make their debut, a combination of players from Iaeger and Big Creek high schools.

As for this season, it’s all about bragging rights.

“They are just as important as anybody on our schedule because ain’t nobody want to come down here to walk the halls and hear someone say ‘Hey man, I beat you last year’,” Big Creek head coach Phillip Dunford said. “They’re all friends, these guys get along well, and they have friends on both teams, but if I was a kid I wouldn’t want somebody telling me that I beat you last year.

“We’re playing for a lot of pride this year between the two schools.”

Round one of three went to Iaeger.

Lawrence Morgan scored 26 points and Cody Jackson added 16, as the Cubs opened their final basketball campaign with a 53-49 win over the Owls in a Tuesday afternoon affair at the Iaeger High School gymnasium.

Not much time has been spent thinking about the significance of the final three games these long-time McDowell County rivals will play.

“You’re the first person that has been associated with the team that has said last one (season),” Iaeger head coach Don Smith said. “We’re not putting any emphasis on this being the last season.

“The boys had a really successful football year and that usually translates into a really decent basketball year. I think we can be as good as we work to be.”

Iaeger (1-0) worked to win this one, using a 15-0 second quarter run to overcome a nine-point deficit, and then held off Big Creek (0-1) in the final minutes to secure the win.

“It must have been (exciting) because we sure made it exciting. We did, although Big Creek played really hard and did a lot of stuff to disrupt what we’re trying to do,” said Smith, who is looking for maturity from his squad.

“When you win a game against a scrappy team and you probably shouldn’t have — with the way we played we shouldn’t have won — but we found a way to win.”

Big Creek, which led 15-8 after one quarter, and had chances to take the lead in the final minutes, was led by Cody Underwood with 16 points, while Jacob Muncy, who transferred from Mount View prior to the start of hoops practice, added 15, all on successful 3-point attempts.

“You saw right from the start it was a playoff atmosphere, we’re going to be combined in two years, but right now it is a hostile environment to come in here,” Dunford said. “It was great for the kids involved and the staff and everybody down here. We had a good game.”

No one enjoyed it more than the Iaeger big men. The 6-foot-5 Morgan and 6-4 Jackson combined for 42 of the Cubs’ 53 points, and also pulled down 17 rebounds (10 from Morgan), and dished out seven assists (5 for Morgan).

Landon Hurley dished out five assists for Iaeger, and received plenty of credit from the men in the middle.

“If it wasn’t for our guards, we couldn’t play like we played,” Morgan said.” “They’ve got to give us the ball, as long as they get us the ball, that’s all we can ask for. We’ve just got to make things happen down low, we’ve got to hit the boards and do what we’ve got to do.”

Big Creek jumped out early with a seven-point lead after one quarter, and quickly increased the margin to nine, 17-8, at the 7:47 mark of the second period. By the time the Owls scored again on a 3 by Underwood with 50 seconds left on the clock, the Cubs had run off 15 straight points, led by Jackson and Morgan, who had 10 points each and 20 of Iaeger’s 23 first half points.

“I think we just settled down and got into the game, that is the main thing, that is what we’ve got to do,” Morgan said. “We’ve got to come out and not get excited over nothing.

“We’ve just got to come in and play our game. We can’t play nobody else’s game, we don’t know how to play nobody else’s game. We’ve got to play our game.”

While Iaeger dominated inside, Big Creek did its best to stay close from outside, connecting on 7 3s. The Owls lone 6-footer, Leshon Benton, injured his knee in practice on Monday and was unable to play.

“Last year I said we were going to shock some people, this year we’re going to come up on them and surprise them,” Dunford said. “I don’t think anyone thought we would shoot the ball as well as we’re going to shoot it

“I think we’ll going to be all right. I think we move the ball a lot better than we did last year. Last year we relied so much on one person, this year I think it is more of a total team effort and we can pass the ball around a lot better.”

Big Creek, which trailed 23-20 at the break, fell behind by seven, 34-27, but were never behind by more than four in the final period. Morgan had 16 second half points, while Jackson had six, all in the final three minutes, including a pair of offensive putbacks.

“We just try to get it to whoever is hitting,” Jackson said. “Lawrence was hitting at first, and when it came time for me to step up, I knew what I had to do.”

The Owls had pulled within 47-46 with 3:33 left on the clock, but missed a couple of opportunities to take the lead. Iaeger made its final three free throws — two by Morgan — and three field goals from Jackson to leave with the win.

Both Morgan and Jackson were pleased to open the season in a day game in front of their peers against the Owls, the second straight year the two schools have played in the afternoon on a weekday.

“That is pretty cool,” said Morgan, a senior, and a member of the final senior class at Iaeger. “It’s definitely a cool thing, it was pretty fun.”

They’ll meet again in an afternoon contest on Jan. 28 in War, and will also play on Dec. 30 in Iaeger’s John Sparks Memorial Tournament.

“This was a good experience to have, it’s really fun,” said Jackson, a junior who will play for River View next season. “It will be good, at first it will probably carry into the new school, but after a while, we’ll just adapt and everything will go like it should.”

—Contact Brian Woodson

at bwoodson@bdtonline.com

at Iaeger High School

BIG CREEK (0-1)

Cody Underwood 6 2-2 16, Chad Franklin 3 0-2 6, Jacob Muncy 5 0-0 15, John Bailey 3 0-0 6, Dillon Cassady 0 0-0 0, Justin Kidwell 2 2-6 6, Aaron Wilson 0 0-0 0, Bradley Click 0 0-0 0. Totals 19 4-10 49.

IAEGER (1-0)

Landon Hurley 1 1-1 3, Trevor Kennedy 2 0-0 4, Lawrence Morgan 11 4-5 26, Cody Jackson 8 0-1 16, Jeff Johnson 1 0-0 2, Tyler Walker 1 0-0 2, Charlie Stacey 0 0-0 0, Trey Lockhart 0 0-0 0, Trey Bailey 0 0-0 0. Totals 24 5-7 53.

Big Creek..........15 5 15 14 — 49

Iaeger..............8 15 13 17 — 53

3-point goals: BC 7 (Muncy 5, Underwood 2); IG 0. Total fouls: BC 13; IG 11. Fouled out: none. Technicals: none.

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