WILLIAMSTON - Tuesday night the rivalry and Four Rivers Conference game played had big stakes for all four varsity teams involved.
Owning bragging rights sometimes outweigh the ranking in the conference play.
Nevertheless those two things held extreme value to both teams earlier this week.
The varsity girls started the first rival game of the night. Both the South Creek Cougars and the Riverside Knight girls team had not cashed in a win all season prior to the night’s match-up.
In the end, the Lady Knights easily outdistanced the Lady Cougars, 60-8.
The Knights totally dominated the first quarter, holding their opponent to nil while scoring 20 points.
Riverside’s Zihanna Lightfoot controlled the offensive boards and carried her team scoring half of their first quarter points.
The young Cougars were overwhelmed by the Knights’ defensive press which barely allowed the Cougars to cross the mid-court stripe.
The Cougars were stuck on nil until the last two minutes of the second quarter when South Creek junior Jahlayshia Coffield found a way to the basket and was fouled in the process of shooting. Coffield broke the scoreless streak by making one of her two free throws.
With one minute left in the first half, the running clock rule was invoked and remained in effect until the buzzer sounded ending the fourth quarter.
Zihanna Lightfoot led the Lady Knights in scoring with 22 points.
The boys game fared slightly differently, but the results were the same as the Cougars lost to the Knights 72-55.
South Creek exploded early in the first four minutes of the first quarter, starting with a three-pointer from Tavon Lee, followed by a two-point bucket from Daiquavion Barnhill.
This quick combination put the Cougars up 5-0 with 5:29 left on the clock.
The Knights countered with a strong inside move in the paint by Terrell Burns and two free throws from Shamir Basnight, putting the Knights within one point of the Cougars at 5-4.
Baskets were exchanged and the score was knotted up at 6-6 with 3:38 left in the first quarter. Fifteenth seconds later, that knot was unraveled by a lay-up from Tyler Whitehurt. That score not only gave the Knights their first lead of the game, it was one they would maintain until the final buzzer of the fourth quarter.
South Creek played catch-up for the remainder of the game. Riverside benefited from a plethora of trifecta’s from the dangerous sharpshooter Shamir Basnight paired with the consistent scoring of Tyler Whitehurst.
That’s not to exclude the board management and scoring from Terrell Burns, which kept the Cougars chasing a comeback that would never come.
At the end of the first half the Knights posted a score of 39-26.
At the end of third quarter the deficit was extended to 17 points as the Knights sported a 57-40 lead. A buzzer beater by Cougars Barnill kept the distance at 17 points. But the win and bragging rights went to the Knights as they wrapped things up winning 72-55.
South Creek Cougar Tavon Lee was the high scorer for his team and the high scorer of the game with 26 points.
The Riverside Knights high scorers were Shamir Basnight with 22 points and Tyler Whitehurst with 21 points.
