Sullivan East boys have 'fun' time against Happy Valley

BLUFF CITY — Winning is fun. The Sullivan East boys basketball team had plenty of fun on Tuesday night, rolling past Happy Valley, 68-30, in the Food City Thanksgiving Classic at Sullivan East's Dyer Dome. "Winning is fun. We are trying to break the norm and we are trying to get out of that losing mentality that has kind of been hanging over us in a lot of things," Sullivan East head coach Brandon Barnes said. "When we finally got the one Saturday night, ok, now it feels different, let's continue to do that. They just stepped it back up even more tonight." Sullivan East (2-2), which is looking to rebound from a 4-25 campaign last season, made it two straight wins, having beaten KACHEA last Saturday after falling to Providence Academy and Hampton to open the season. Ryan Hurley and Eli Hubbard led Sullivan East with 18 points apiece, while freshman Isaac Deel had 13, including three 3s in the first quarter to stake the Patriots to a 19-10 lead after one period, a margin that grew to 37-14 at halftime. "We have been working on the effort and trying to jump on it from the beginning and get that energy going and they did tonight and it translates into the rest of the game." Happy Valley (1-4) struggled in lots of ways, with Artee Bahn scoring seven points and Grady Goulds adding six in the loss. "We are just a turnover team," Happy Valley head coach Shane Williams said. "We turn the ball over at a high rate, we don't do shoot it at a high rate and we don't rebound the ball so all three of those is a combination for disaster and we have to figure out how we are going to fix that... "We just have to be more competitive. We have got to have some guys that really compete every day and we have got to have some guys that are really wanting to step forward and live up to the standard that is created around here." Sullivan East, which will face fast-paced Mountain Mission from Grundy, Va., on Wednesday at 6 p.m., has struggled at times with slow starts, but certainly not in this one, thanks in large part to Deel from outside the arc. The Patriots built on its halftime lead by outscoring the Warriors 31-16 after the break. "That happens to us a lot so I was like instead of us digging holes and spending all that energy trying to get back into it, can we just use that energy at the start and continue to go forward from there," Barnes said. Happy Valley faces a tall task on Wednesday, competing with unbeaten Tennessee High at 7:30 p.m. Williams will be looking for increased production much of his team, including Lane Parker, Austin Stines, Zack Rose, Jace Winegar, Dorrian Young, Bahn and others as the season progresses. "It is still early, but we have been doing this for a minute now," Williams said. "They have been juniors now so this has pretty much been our M.O. We play pretty hard, but sometimes our IQ and sometimes our skills just don't match up. We have got to make it make sense." Williams was a standout at Science Hill from 1988-92, and has been in coaching for many years, both has a head coach at Tri-Cities Christian, an assistant at Carson-Newman and has also worked with middle school athletes. "We are in it. It is basketball season and I love it and we are trying to get better, being the underdog every time is really good," Williams said. "We like to fight back, but we have to get some fight in our kids." Other boys games on Wednesday at Sullivan East includes Hampton and Mountain Mission at 1 p.m., followed by West Ridge and Clinton at 3 p.m. GIRLS Greeneville 64, Sullivan East 26 Maria Lyde led three Greeneville scorers in double figures with 22 points to pace the Greene Devils past the Patriots in the Food City Thanksgiving Classic. Greeneville (1-2) led 13-0 before Audrey Easley got the Patriots on the board with 2:10 left in the opening quarter. That margin grew to 29-9 at halftime. Greeneville outscored the Patriots 35-27 in the second half. Emma Whitaker paced the Patriots (1-3) with 10 points. Whitaker joined Braelyn Winchell with two 3-pointers apiece. David Crockett transfer Brylee Tullock had 17 points for Greeneville, while Julie Woolsey added 13. Sullivan East will face Morristown West on Wednesday at Sullivan East Middle School at noon. Greeneville will play Morristown West at the Dyer Dome on Wednesday at 4:30 p.m. In other girls action on Wednesday, West Ridge will face Bearden at noon, also at the Dyer Dome.