STORY -- Rosewood boys @ C.B. Aycock

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on December 11, 2016 1:45 AM

• Print
• Email

C.B. Aycock 50, Rosewood 43

* PIKEVILLE -- Charles B. Aycock head coach Dave Elmore called a timeout when Rosewood gained control of Friday night's game.

Wasting no time, Elmore got into the faces of his players and audibly screamed, "Wake up! Wake up! Show some intensity!"

The terse pep talk was thunderous enough for his players to gather the message. Heck, even the fans in the bleachers got the memo.

Sparked by Elmore's tirade, CBA dominated the second quarter and clinched a tight 50-43 win versus the Eagles.

"Their response was great," Elmore said. "I had to do something there because we started off lackadaisical...(Rosewood) puts us in a funk there at the beginning of the game. So I needed to do something to wake us up."

The Eagles resorted to the old Princeton offense -- a lull-you-to-sleep back-door cut scheme. Crisp passes were made from the top of the key to corresponding players charging to the basket.

The effortless flow gave Rosewood an early 14-8 advantage.

"The ball movement was good," Eagles head coach Daniel Mitchell said. "Defensively in our zone I thought we did a good job of rebounding the basketball and a good job of contesting shots."

The same could not be said for RHS in the second quarter.

Aycock limited Rosewood to just four points in the second frame, and sprinted to a 19-16 halftime advantage. CBA's burst heading into the locker room proved significant as the Golden Falcons' never relinquished their lead in the second half.

CBA closed out the game by outscoring Rosewood 17-12.

"I tried a different combination," Elmore said. "Put some different guys in to see if that would change it up a little bit and they did. I told the guys in the locker room that our execution late in the game was way better than it had been."

Eli Batts led the Golden Falcons with 20 points and Semaj Yelverton chipped in 10. Chance Howard recorded 18 points for Rosewood.

Elmore, now in his third year as coach, began 0-11 his first year and 0-5 his second year. The Golden Falcons are 3-4 this season and showing the progress that Elmore always anticipated.

"We're a young team and we're just now starting to play together a lot," Elmore said. "And by the end of the season, we should be where we want to be. We're way ahead of where we have been. So we're making that progress and closing the gap."