The Birds started True, Towles,Lewis,Egan and Dean. Towles started the game with a 3 pointer and Pike answered on the other end with 2. Towles the made a real nice drop step on Pike to put Birds up 5-2. Stansberry tesponded and it was a really good game the first 3 min. But Hatton started hitting and the Birds turned it over a few times. Dixie shoots very well and next thing you knew it was 16-7. Towles picked up 2nd foul with 1:30 left in 1st. With nobody dressed taller than 6'1 Flynn had to go with Soph footballer Mccoy for a few min at the 4. Birds already playing with little Varsity experience went into the half down 36-19. Hatton and Pike probabky combined for 20 in the half.

 

Birds make a huge run in 3rd as Egan gets hot nailing two 3's, Dean slices by Trammell for a couple nice buckets and Towles has his way against Pike.The lead was cut to 10 late in the 3rd after Towles was fould making a bust out layup. It was a gutsy effort by the Birds in that qtr. Towles picked up his 3rd though and had to defend differently most of the qtr also.

 

Dixie made adjustments and started pulling away in the 4th. Hatton hit a 3 on a long rebound off a miss and Pike hit 3 easy buckets with Towles foul ridden and playing less aggressive. He played most of 4th with 4 fouls. The score is not indicative of how close the game got though. If the Birds have Crowley and Stew and Towles and Dean play like that its a much much closer game. In fact I really like this Bird team after seeing them play last night.

 

Rotation off bench in first half was New,McCoy and Witte. McCoy 6' spelled 6'6 Towles, New 5'10 subbed for 6'5 True and Witte spelled Lewis who are both same size. You see the height given up when True and Towles went out. Good minutes though by the bench. In the 2nd half coach used the aforementioned bench along with 6'1 Soph Turner. Also keep in mind only 5 players the Birds used had more than 6 practices.

 

Dixie is a well oiled machine, they really shoot well. Stansberry, Hatton and Pike are a strong core of scorers. Trammell is very good also but IMO Alex Dean outplayed him last night holding him to 2 pts. The Colonels do have a dropoff when they go to their bench though. Hassell played nicely off the bench but that was about all. As far as ranked number 1 in the region? Hard to say now with Boone losing tonight to Campbell Co and Conner getting beat the othet night. I havnt seen Holmes but this Region is wide open.

I'll start out by asking.....where were all the Highlands fans?

 

For a school that can pack a football stadium with people, it's ashame they get very little support for the roundballers.

Good win for the Colonels

 

Pike indeed had a very nice game taking advantage of the Birds down low, especially when Towles had to worry about his foul situation.

Dixie did the smart thing and pounded it into him.

Hatton and Stansberry played very well in this one also.

 

Dixie had some defensive mental lapses at times, but it didn't seem to affect the outcome.

 

Muntis started in place of Hassel in this one. (don't know why)

 

Towles played well...I'm just not sure where their (Birds) offense is going to come from this year.

Stewart is on crutches and I believe Crowley has some sort of groin or upper thigh injury? Not sure of the specifics on him.

 

No surprise in this score with those two out for the Birds. Heard Zeke had a huge game and was laughing at the HHS players after every basket he made, taunting them and the HHS students who were there. Is this true?

 

No...once again someone is making a mountain out of a molehill. I saw one smile in the first half that was directed at the entire 15 HHS students there.

 

And I highly suggest people refrain from making comments on a kids behavior unless you witness the real situation in person.

The Birds started True, Towles,Lewis,Egan and Dean. Towles started the game with a 3 pointer and Pike answered on the other end with 2. Towles the made a real nice drop step on Pike to put Birds up 5-2. Stansberry tesponded and it was a really good game the first 3 min. But Hatton started hitting and the Birds turned it over a few times. Dixie shoots very well and next thing you knew it was 16-7. Towles picked up 2nd foul with 1:30 left in 1st. With nobody dressed taller than 6'1 Flynn had to go with Soph footballer Mccoy for a few min at the 4. Birds already playing with little Varsity experience went into the half down 36-19. Hatton and Pike probabky combined for 20 in the half.

 

Birds make a huge run in 3rd as Egan gets hot nailing two 3's, Dean slices by Trammell for a couple nice buckets and Towles has his way against Pike.The lead was cut to 10 late in the 3rd after Towles was fould making a bust out layup. It was a gutsy effort by the Birds in that qtr. Towles picked up his 3rd though and had to defend differently most of the qtr also.

 

Dixie made adjustments and started pulling away in the 4th. Hatton hit a 3 on a long rebound off a miss and Pike hit 3 easy buckets with Towles foul ridden and playing less aggressive. He played most of 4th with 4 fouls. The score is not indicative of how close the game got though. If the Birds have Crowley and Stew and Towles and Dean play like that its a much much closer game. In fact I really like this Bird team after seeing them play last night.

 

Rotation off bench in first half was New,McCoy and Witte. McCoy 6' spelled 6'6 Towles, New 5'10 subbed for 6'5 True and Witte spelled Lewis who are both same size. You see the height given up when True and Towles went out. Good minutes though by the bench. In the 2nd half coach used the aforementioned bench along with 6'1 Soph Turner. Also keep in mind only 5 players the Birds used had more than 6 practices.

 

Dixie is a well oiled machine, they really shoot well. Stansberry, Hatton and Pike are a strong core of scorers. Trammell is very good also but IMO Alex Dean outplayed him last night holding him to 2 pts. The Colonels do have a dropoff when they go to their bench though. Hassell played nicely off the bench but that was about all. As far as ranked number 1 in the region? Hard to say now with Boone losing tonight to Campbell Co and Conner getting beat the othet night. I havnt seen Holmes but this Region is wide open.

 

Trammel won't put up big numbers unless he needs to. His job as a point guard is to run the offense and play tough D. He's one of the "best" on the defensive side imo. Dixie's not the same with him off the floor.

Edited December 15, 201015 yr by Solomon

No...once again someone is making a mountain out of a molehill. I saw one smile in the first half that was directed at the entire 15 HHS students there.

 

And I highly suggest people refrain from making comments on a kids behavior unless you witness the real situation in person.

 

He did more than smile Solomon. He put his hand up in the air several times motioning for the Highlands cheering section to keep bringing it on. I saw this, but personally as a fan watching the game I had no problem with this. I thought it was silly, but part of the game. If I'm Dixie's coach I'm wanting him not get so caught up in the hoopla. I didn't see the sign that was up because I was behind the student section. If it said what it was supposed to have said then I agree it's classless.

I agree with Qrychee11 about the region being wide open. Highlands last night was missing 6'7 Stewart and 6'3 Crowley and played with a post player who has participated in only about 5 or 6 practices. The score doesn't reflect a great deal about this game last night.

Additionally I thought Carter New played pretty well last night. He's physically gotten a lot stronger and that will really help him.

 

Hatton is the game changer for Dixie. He's very poised and from a fundamental perspective he's extremely sound. He does what guards should do and that’s make everybody on your team better.

 

Good luck to both teams throughout the remainder of the year.

Either way, the kid needs to learn to be the bigger person in that situation. All he's doing is adding even more fuel to the fire. I hate to point things out like this, especially when it comes to a high school KID, but someone seriously needs to sit down and talk to this young man about his actions.

 

I saw NO taunting or smiling at the opponents. I saw a kid having fun with his teammates, who are also smiling and enjoying their success. It's easy to understand why negative opinions are abound based on past behavior. I am glad to see the joyful emotions versus the potential reactions that could come from the harrasment he gets from the opposing fans. Negative (intense) reactions in the past have led to foul trouble for Zeke.

Congrats to Dixie. Very nice ball club. The Red C's won't lose many games this year. They certainly will have a great shot of winning the region along with 3 or 4 other teams.

Pike got a case of the smiles and thats fine. Its what makes HS Hoops so great. You get the fans chanting bac and forth and as long as the players dont get too involved its all good. Only thing I never agreed with on Pike was his backtalking football coaches. Im thinking Nick Saban wont have any of that though.

 

The Bird offense will come from Stew, Crowley,Towles and Egan primarily. Dean is the PG and doesnt do too bad getting by his man and scoring layups but he and New will be counted on to feed the big boys. How about Dean's shot over Stansberry with the foul? He only gives away about 8 inches and he did a great job converting on that play when the Birds were cutting into the lead.

 

You basically had 2 double figure scorers out in this game. Im not saying the Birds would have won with them but I would love to see a rematch in March. Towles and Stewart will give teams fits and Crowley and Egan can drop 3's on ya in a second. This Bird team isnt even close to being where they will be in Jan.

Highlands student section had no respect for him and saying he was overrated and was calling him every name in the book. They even made signs stating they hated Zeke Pike. So Zeke was just letting the opposing team's fans have it on a night that he could be cocky having a huge game.

 

You have to ignore the extracurriclar stuff going on. Sooner than later this behavior usually does not bode well for a player. However I am more I am more concerned about a 20 point loss. I realize two top players were out. I just wonder when and if Highlands will make a serious run at a region title. It's been a while.

You have to ignore the extracurriclar stuff going on. Sooner than later this behavior usually does not bode well for a player. However I am more I am more concerned about a 20 point loss. I realize two top players were out. I just wonder when and if Highlands will make a serious run at a region title. It's been a while.

 

It's not going to happen. The reality is HHS is a football school..PERIOD!! The Birds basketball and baseball teams would be contenders just about every year if the kids would continue to play those sports. I can't even name all of the kids over the last few years that would of really helped and made a huge difference in both of these programs. It is really sad that those kids just concentrate on football after their frosh years.. I believe it will happen sooner in baseball than basketball. Coach Baioni has it going in the right direction..

You have to ignore the extracurriclar stuff going on. Sooner than later this behavior usually does not bode well for a player. However I am more I am more concerned about a 20 point loss. I realize two top players were out. I just wonder when and if Highlands will make a serious run at a region title. It's been a while.

 

A run for the region is not going to come anytime soon if they cannot get more boys involved in the program. How can a school that has the success that it does in football only have 15 or so boys tryout for basketball that are not frosh. There are only 4 seniors and 3 juniors which does not bode well for the success of a program. Something needs to be done sooner rather than later.

A run for the region is not going to come anytime soon if they cannot get more boys involved in the program. How can a school that has the success that it does in football only have 15 or so boys tryout for basketball that are not frosh. There are only 4 seniors and 3 juniors which does not bode well for the success of a program. Something needs to be done sooner rather than later.

 

I have watched both the Sr and JR class boys since 7th grade and to be quite honest, the kids that are playing are the ones I figured would be playing. The only two not playing that I honestly think could help the team this year would be Jr's Jake True and Drake Bruns. Their physical strength would be nice to have coming off the bench to defend and get rebounds. I wouldnt consider either of those guys scorers but they would have added depth. Who in this year's Sr class would make a difference that doesnt play I ask you? The 4 Sr's is a good number and the 6 sophomores on the roster also is decent. Christian is the only soph who chose not to play to focus on football, that was somewhat of a blow to the JV team this year but with the strong and big Frosh class behind them they should be fine.

 

Lets face it, the basketball team will always have to depend on some football players to help them be successfull and unless the KHSAA gets their head out of their butt and ends the football season earlier they will always struggle in December/early January. Start football earlier and end it the weekend of Thanksgiving. Playing a state title game 6 days into December is just STUPID.

Do not disagree with the senior class so much, but why did True and Bruns not come out? Did Coach Flynn talk to them at all and try to urge them to tryout because they would be a help? I do not know the answer to that, but you might. There are 6 sophs now, but how many will come back to hoops next year if this one leaves a bad taste in their mouth and now they are playing more important roles on the football team. Frosh class is the same way as a majority of the "players" are also on the football team. This works its way all the way down to the middle school level. Baseball program is trying to reach these kids in middle school and the basketball program needs to do the same thing. Realize that the day of the 3 sport athlete is a thing of the past, but there is no reason that they cannot play 2 and be good at both of them. It just seems that there is no draw for the kids to stay in the basketball and/or baseball programs for whatever reason. As a result, these sports do not experience near as much success as they should which really is a shame.

Do not disagree with the senior class so much, but why did True and Bruns not come out? Did Coach Flynn talk to them at all and try to urge them to tryout because they would be a help? I do not know the answer to that, but you might. There are 6 sophs now, but how many will come back to hoops next year if this one leaves a bad taste in their mouth and now they are playing more important roles on the football team. Frosh class is the same way as a majority of the "players" are also on the football team. This works its way all the way down to the middle school level. Baseball program is trying to reach these kids in middle school and the basketball program needs to do the same thing. Realize that the day of the 3 sport athlete is a thing of the past, but there is no reason that they cannot play 2 and be good at both of them. It just seems that there is no draw for the kids to stay in the basketball and/or baseball programs for whatever reason. As a result, these sports do not experience near as much success as they should which really is a shame.

 

Hard to say about True and Bruns. My guess is they might not have been happy being role players and feel their time in the weight room is more important, I dont know. I think the sophomores will all come back. McCoy is one that I worry might decide to hang it up at some point but he only plays football so playing two sports is definitely something not that difficult. Collinsworth IMO can be a better basketball player than football with is build and athleticism but that is JMO. Turner will play hoops, that is no question. I do know there are a lot of frosh that are football players so the key really will be keeping them interested and I think by moving a few up and letting them taste JV play that is a great move by Coach Flynn/Lykins.