Sparta
The White County Warriors picked up their fifth straight win to improve to 7-1 Saturday night, topping the Notre Dame Fighting Irish 67-52 in a game that was much closer than indicated by the final score.
The Notre Dame offense wasn’t able to get anything past the White County defense, sinking just two shots throwing the ball away more than a handful of times in the first eight minutes as the Warriors built an early 7-0 lead. The Warriors extended their lead to 10 as the scoreboard read 15-5 at the first buzzer thanks to a pair of threes by Tucker Pinion and another by Jack Carpenter.
The Warriors had some ball handling issues in the second quarter that resulted in several Notre Dame steals, and the Fighting Irish cut the lead to six midway through the second quarter. White County settled down in the final four minutes of the half, as its lead bounced from six to 11 and back down to eight by the half time buzzer.
Early in the third, after a Carpenter three wouldn’t fall, a Mason Steele putback pushed the lead to 10. But missed shots and untimely fouls against the Warriors allowed the Fighting Irish to trim the gap to a single point four minutes at the end of three periods.
The Warriors worked to right the ship, with Pinion taking a layup to the basket to start the final period. Seeing a way to get their first win of the season, however, the Fighting Irish kept things close for another four minutes before the White County offense started lighting up the scoreboard. For much of the final period, Notre Dame kept the game within a single basket, but ultimately the Warriors pulled away as the final buzzer drew near thanks to solid free-throw shooting by Pinion and Cole Sims.
Four of the Warriors' starting five finished with double-digit scoring totals Saturday. Pinion led the way with 20 points, while Sims added 16. Steele was responsible for 11 points and Lukas Smith added another 10. Carpenter just missed out on making it five-for-five as he hit three from behind the arc to add 9 points to the Warriors' side of the scoreboard.
White County will start bracket play in the Franks Christmas Tournament at 2:30 Thursday afternoon. After the three-day tournament, the Warriors will break for Christmas before heading to the Tullahoma Christmas Classic on Dec. 28.
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