The start of the 2012-2013 basketball season is in the books. Midway opened the season with 3 straight home games. The Lady Waves, under first year coach Jon Leffew, went 1-2 with a victory over Oakdale and losses to a powerful Meigs County Tiger team and Tellico Plains. The boys went 2-1 with wins over Oakdale and Tellico Plains. Their loss was the season opener against Monterey; which they look to avenge on Saturday for their first away game. SORSN was not in the building for the opener against Monterey so we’ll forgo any game recaps from that one…but we will touch on the previous two games to get the site and everyone caught up and to hopefully silence our critic of “…SORSN is never updated.”
The Lady Waves have an interesting make-up this year. They are led by 3 seniors – Alisa Barger, Halie Wiley, and Taylor Whitehead – who have logged a lot of minutes for Midway during their basketball career. Taylor Whitehead has a new position on the floor for 2012. Taylor is now playing post alongside another talented post player in Jessie Lewis who is only a sophomore. And they have 3 freshman who are earning a lot of attention in District 3-A.
In the first game (that SORSN was in attendance), the Lady Waves squared off against the always strong Meigs County Lady Tigers. The Lady Waves just couldn’t match up and it was an easy victory for the Lady Tigers. The next game was a good matchup between the Oakdale Eagles and the Lady Waves. In the ‘90s, the University of Michigan had the “Fab Five” freshman that was all the rage in the college basketball world. Well, the Lady Waves features the “Thrilling Trio” of Alexis Taylor, Abby Bertram, and Rachael Tuttle. The speed and athletic ability of these 3 freshman have all the teams in the region talking. The freshman played like seniors against the Lady Eagles and they led the team to a victory. The speed and talent of the youngsters + that of the seniors made for some great Lady Wave basketball and a win over Oakdale.
But just as quickly as the freshman showcased good poise and judgment during the Friday night game against Oakdale, they had their “freshman” moments against Tellico Plains…..which, is to be expected. The game against Tellico Plains was a good one with the Lady Bears holding a slight edge on the scoreboard through most of the game; at times even a double-digit lead. But the Lady Waves rallied in the closing minutes, stealing the momentum and closing to within 4-points with a chance to pull within 2. Put missed layups, free-throws, and turnovers in the final minute allowed Tellico to hold onto the lead and the win.
For the boys, 2012 looks promising with good size and talent. Unfortunately, this squad has many Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde qualities about them so we’ll just have to see how the season unfolds. The Waves are led by seniors Caleb Ruffner, Adam Houser, Logan Davidson, and Josh Brummitt. The experience and athleticism continues with juniors Christian Moore and Shandon Lyle. Sophomore big man Jacob Cawood anchors the middle for the Waves.
Against Oakdale, the Waves brought their A game. Caleb Ruffner and Shandon Lyle led the charge as the Waves built out a 30+ lead. Coach Ruffner was able to go deep on the bench and get the young guys some playing time. The young guys didn’t disappoint as they added to the lead. Mason Woody, Zach Edwards and Seth Colyer combined for 13 points to maintain the lop-sided victory.
The game against Tellico Plains was much different. The Waves started off slow and Tellico built out a 19-4 lead in the first. It was well into the 2nd period before the Waves finally hit double-digits. Credit Adam Houser for helping the Waves crawl back into the game. Adam, who had been hindered by a bad foot, caught fire for the Waves and was hitting everything he tossed up. The Waves found themselves within reach, down 9, at the half. Unable to close the margin in the third, the 4th period started with the Waves down by 11. The Waves began to make their charge late in the 4th. Caleb Ruffner knocked down some easy shots off of forced turnovers and Shandon Lyle was….well Shandon Lyle. Attacking on offense…causing havoc on defense…and helping the Waves take the lead for the first time in the game. Two technical fouls on Tellico Plains, one due to substitution violation and one due to a 4-letter word, caused a further shift in the momentum of the game. Down but not out, Tellico had a final shot at the buzzer to win the game but thankfully it was wide right and the Waves survived a poor shooting night to win 60-59.
The Waves will be at home Tuesday night before a long stretch of road games. See the full schedule here – http://www.sorsn.com/mhs-basketball-schedule/
Visit the galleries to see photos from the games – http://www.thirstypixelphoto.com/Sports/Basketball-Midway-High-School