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Connor Hoover leads Wirt past Gilmer, 78-58

By Jay W. Bennett 4 min read

ELIZABETH - Connor Hoover had game-highs of 22 points, 14 rebounds and three blocked shots here Wednesday for host Wirt County as the Tigers spoiled the head coaching debut of Gilmer County's Austin Ratliff after securing a 78-58 triumph in the season opener for both teams.

Caleb Axley drained five 3s en route to 16 points, Braylan Dawson pitched in 15 counters and Aiden Cheuvront filled up the stat sheet with six points, six rebounds as well as game-highs of five assists and four steals for the Tigers, who head Friday to sectional rival and preseason Class AA No. 6 Ravenswood.

The Titans, who played without starter Grant Butler but hope to have him back for Friday's home debut versus Wahama, were their own worst enemy. The visitors converted just 25 of 49 free-throw attempts and were in heavy foul trouble all night.

"Foul trouble early doesn't help. Two of the starters had three fouls in the first quarter," admitted Ratliff, who received double figure scoring efforts from Tyler Bush (16), Jacob Mick (14) and Kolten Holbert (10).

"You're looking deep into your bench and we don't have a very deep bench. I'll take this one on the chin. I watched film, but I didn't expect them to come out and shoot as good as they did. Credit to Wirt County. They came out and shot lights out."

The Tigers scored the first bucket of the season 1:29 in when Hoover hit from beyond the arc thanks to an Axley assist. Axley followed with a pair of trifectas and after Cheuvront's first steal it was 11-1 thanks to a Dawson lay-in.

Mick took a skip pass from Bush and hit a 3 to make it 13-6, but Axley answered right back with another triple.

Gilmer County trailed 21-11 after one and the Tigers opened the second period with a Zay Fasogbon three-point play thanks to an assist from Easton Wyer, who had four points and 10 caroms.

Zach Wine, who finished with seven markers and a team-high eight boards, had a putback to make it 30-20 at the 4:15 mark. The Titans were still down by 10 at 38-28 after a Holbert layup with 1:42 to go in the half, but the hosts scored six of the final seven points, which included another Axley 3, to lead 44-29 at intermission.

"We came out and you could tell that it was our first game of the year," admitted Tiger head man Chase Mills, whose club held a 50-37 edge on the glass and hit 12 of 31 from deep. "Some of those guys have played together for a long time and there's a few guys in there who haven't played.

"We got to play a lot of guys. I thought overall we shared the ball pretty well offensively and we had three guys in double figures. That was good. I thought our offensive spacing was pretty good, but I think we are going to have to pick it up on the defensive end. We've got to be a lot better defensively."

Holbert's layup late in the second started a field goal drought of 11:49 for the Titans, who went 0 of 14 from the floor in the third quarter without taking a shot from beyond the arc.

The Tigers pushed ahead 51-33 with 2:09 left in the third following a Fasogbon reverse lay-in. Alex Bevel's assist to Hoover, who drained a deep 3 from the wing with three seconds remaining, gave the hosts a 56-37 advantage heading to the fourth.

"We got to go back to the drawing board and work a little bit better on defense closing out," added Ratliff, who got six points and three steals from Trey Stanley.

"The biggest thing we need to work on is foul shots. Missing 24 foul shots and getting beat by 20, that's a totally different game if you make half of those. I thought the kids played hard. A lot to build on."

Contact Jay Bennett at jbennett@newsandsentinel.com

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