By Mike Hutchens, UC Schools Communications Director
Union City, Tenn.–Admittedly without their best efforts, Union City picked up a pair of “big picture” victories over Lake County Tuesday night.
“Obviously, there are some things we have to do better, but it was a district win and it keeps us where we need to be to get the third or fourth seed,” Lady Tornado head coach Chuck Reedy said after his club recorded a 45-37 triumph in the opener.
UC – now 4-3 in league play and in fourth-place in 13A -‑ had drubbed LC 61-35 in an earlier meeting at Tiptonville.
In the nightcap, the Tornadoes – 70-38 winner over Lake County the first week of December – needed a second-half surge led by Tyler Walton to pull away to a 65-48 win and remain unbeaten (7-0) in the district.
Walton hit all five of his 3-pointers in the second half – four in the fourth quarter – when the Purple and Gold eased to a commanding lead.
“We changed some things defensively coming out and, quite honestly, we weren’t very good with them,” UC head coach Shane Sisco said after his squad won its fifth straight to improve to 14-7 overall. “We were more aggressive in the second half, though, and we pushed the ball either in transition or after turnovers and that gave us some better offensive opportunities.”
Union City will next celebrate homecoming Friday night when Greenfield visits Marty Sisco Gymnasium.
UC 45, LC 37 (G)
Down 25-20 after a lackluster first 2 ½ quarters, UC put together its best stretch over the next six minutes to come from behind with a 16-2 burst that ultimately netted the Lady Twisters their eighth overall win of the season.
Kendall Davis knocked down a pair of critical 3-pointers in a run of 10 unanswered points for Union City and Shyon Stephens capped the flurry with an old-fashioned 3-point play.
Up 36-27 with a little over five minutes left, the Tornado girls then held on when Jada Williams and Sophie Theobald each sank two free throws in the last 54 seconds.
“They (Lake County) did a good job of making us shoot 3-pointers – we shot more tonight than we have in any game all year. And everyone knows by now we’re a much-better team when we’re taking the ball to the basket,” Reedy added.
“We’ll take the end-result though, and we’ll go in Wednesday and start preparing for a really good Greenfield team again.”
Williams led a trio of double-figure scorers for the winners with 14 points. Davis finished with 12 – the result of four treys – and Stephens ended up with 10.
UC 65, LC 48 (B)
After missing his first five 3-point attempts, Walton caught fire from long range in the second half.
Taylan Tribble scored on consecutive possessions in the third period, converting a 3-point play on the second of those buckets, as Union City scored 10 of 14 points to build from a 26-22 halftime lead.
The Twisters had gotten off to a good start when Ben McMillan connected twice from deep and Neil Brown made two buckets in the post.
But Lake County battled back and eventually drew even in the first half at 22 before Walton sank a deuce and Sam Theobald scored on a drive to give the Tornadoes a slim halftime edge.
“I take the blame for our first-half issues defensively,” Sisco added. “They (Lake County) were certainly better than the first time we played them, but I thought we sped them up due to our aggressiveness on defense in the second half. It got us into a better flow.
“Getting 16 points out of our post people (Tribble 11, Brown 5, Hudson Calfee 1) was good and those guys were very active. And I thought Nolan Wilson came in off the bench and gave us some energy.”
The high-scoring Walton-McMillan duo combined for 40 points – Walton ending up with a game-high 24.
UC hit 9-of-25 from beyond the arc and was guilty of just eight turnovers.
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