SHARPSVILLE — Tipton’s boys basketball team expects to get a supreme effort out of every team it faces this season. The Class 2A No. 3-ranked Blue Devils are in the spotlight, and opponents will want to steal the show.
In Wednesday’s season opener here at Tri-Central, the Trojans had all the life of a charged-up challenger early, posting a 5-0 lead. Then, Tipton took over.
The Blue Devils went on the first of their two first-half 16-0 runs to vault into the lead at 16-5 and never faltered, surging to an 83-44 victory in the opening game for both squads.
“Last year, I think we thought we were going to be pretty good, but we surprised some people with how well we played,” Tipton coach Travis Daugherty said, contrasting this season’s team to last season’s edition which went 21-3. “This year, we’re not going to sneak up on anybody. We’re going to get everybody’s best shot.
“That’s’ where you want to be. You want to be a team that demands that [every opponent] plays their best. We’ll see as the year goes on if we’re able to maintain that or not.”
The Devils maintained a strong effort Wednesday, putting four starters in double figures and holding a margin of at least 10 points throughout the final three quarters.
With Tipton up 19-11 in the first quarter, Devil guard Greg Dickey hit a 3-pointer to start Tipton’s second 16-0 run, which took the lead to 35-11 in the second quarter before the Trojans scored again. The run was fueled by balanced offense and harassing defense which forced Tri-Central into 13 turnovers in the first half.
“I think one of the qualities of a good team is that when you’re able to get stops, those become points at the other end,” Daugherty said. “Those turn into runs, and hopefully those runs are enough to create some space.”
Tri-Central coach Jeff Layden was impressed with the Devils.
“That’s probably the best team we’re going to play all season,” Layden said. “If we hang our heads and give up after that, that’s going to be very disappointing. Give Tipton credit, they’re a very good basketball team, they play great defense, they were patient offensively and took good shots. I think we’ve progressed, but we’ve got a ways to go before we get to a level like that.”
Post player Kyle Coleman led Tipton with 17 points on 7 of 8 shooting from the field. Forward Derek Elston scored 16 and grabbed 13 rebounds. Dickey had 14 points and forward Jake Hoffman added 11.
“We did a good job of sharing the basketball,” Daugherty said. “We didn’t try to do too much individually and we’ve got a group that’s capable of that.
“There’s not a coach around that’s not stressing the idea of unselfish play to his team, but you’ve got to have a certain type of kid to buy into that.”
Guard Austin Burton led TC with a dozen points while Brock Tew added seven and Jake King, Kevin Ray and Jacob Baird each had six. King added 10 rebounds.
“I felt like although we still got beat, I don’t feel like we had the deer in the headlights look like we did last year,” Layden said. “I felt like we competed. We just weren’t as good as Tipton.”
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