EMORY, Va. – Basketball is meant to be fun, but Honaker head coach Waylon Hart doesn’t want the other team to enjoy playing against his Tigers.
“Our philosophy is we want to make it no fun to play against us,” Hart said. “We want to put as much pressure – and sometimes we will get burned for it – but we want to put pressure up in you and make you make decisions and plays under pressure.”
Hart’s son, Jaylon, did his part on Tuesday night to help make that happen, as Honaker outscored Patrick Henry 43-9 in the second half en route to a 60-29 Hogoheegee District road win.
“We are not a team that likes to slow down, we like to pick up the pace and get after people,” Jaylon said. “It helps a lot when you have a coach that supports you in that play style and wants you to dog the ball and push the floor. It is really dad. He pushes us to be aggressive.”
It certainly worked after halftime in this one. Honaker led 27-20 at the break, but Waylon Hart -who continually encourages his team to push the ball from the sidelines – didn’t feel like his Tigers were being aggressive enough.
That all changed in a hurry, with the Tigers allowing just one field goal and two free throws in a 19-4 third quarter run. The Rebels managed just two field goals in the final period while being outscored 24-5.
“We turned it up defensively. This man [Jaylon] and Aidan Lowe on the perimeter and Peyton Musick did a great job on [Cole] Caywood inside,” Waylon said. “We just got more intensity on the defensive end and that led to some easy buckets.
HONAKER (60)
P.Musick 4 1-2 10, Gill 3 0-0 6, Keene 3 1-1 8, A.Lowe 10 0-0 20, Bandy 5 0-0 10, C.Musick 2 0-0 4, M.Lowe 1 0-0 2, A.Musick 0 0-0 0, J.Hart 0-0 0. Totals 28 2-3 60.
PATRICK HENRY (29)
Street 2 0-0 6, Monahan 2 0-0 5, Deskins 3 0-0 7, Co.Caywood 0 4-4 4, Stewart 2 1-5 5, Hudson 1 0-0 2, Hicks 0 0-0 0, Call 0 0-0 0, Gobble 0 0-0 0, Revleavy 0 0-0 0, Dunn 0 0-0 0. Totals 10 5-9 29.
Honaker 12 15 19 14 – 60
Patrick Henry 9 11 4 5 – 29
3-point goals: HK 2 (P.Musick, Keene); PH 4 (Street 2, Monahan, Deskins). Total fouls: HK 8; PH 8. Fouled out: none. Technicals: none.