Dragons Win With Second Half Outburst
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CAMERON -- It was looking as though Cameron was in for a nail-biter on Tuesday night midway through the third quarter. Then the floodgates opened.
With a six-point lead late in the third, the Dragons tallied a 26-6 run into the fourth quarter and defeated visiting Clay-Battelle convincingly by an 81-55 score.
"We got a basket and used our full-court press to get a couple of turnovers and got a couple of baskets off of that with a couple of 3's, too," Cameron coach Tom Hart said. "We kind of picked up our intensity there. In the first half we didn't play very good defense but once we started playing defense with our hands out, we got a couple of deflections."
Cameron (3-3) held tightly to a 46-40 cushion midway through the third when Lance Hartley began the massive spurt with a bucket.
That followed with a conventional three-point play Trevor Beresford, who drained the foul shot for a 51-40 upper hand.
The Dragons continued it's hot streak with a 10-0 run to end the third, taking a 61-44 lead into the final frame and never looked back.
"Three of our last four games were rough," Hart said. "We have a stretch of games now with some tough road games coming up. It's a very important stretch but we are taking it one game at a time. When we are playing defense and blocking out and rebounding, we play much better. I was very pleased with how we rebounded."
The Cee-Bees (4-2) had the hot hand first and used a 7-0 run to grab a 17-14 lead at the end of the first quarter.
Cameron fired back with a late 10-0 march in the second to secure a 38-33 halftime advantage before catching fire in the third.
"Our shots weren't falling like they were in the first half," Clay-Battelle coach Josh Kisner said. "That hurt. We shot 60% on 2-pointers in the first half but didn't shoot so well in the second. I've also never had a team shoot that bad at the foul line since I've been at Clay-Battelle (13-for-25). We can't have that but we will work on that. That's just the mental part of the game."
Hartley led the way for the Dragons with a career-high 23 points along with 10 rebounds to complete the double-double.
Beresford followed with a double-double of his own, which included 16 points, 15 boards and four blocks.
Also for Cameron, Connor Powell netted 14 points, Cole Burkett recorded nine points, Chris McCauley supplied eight points, Nathan Haeberle garnered six points and Colson Wichterman turned in five points.
Michael Payton paced Clay-Battelle with 18 points and Preston Luzader added 10.