Warriors beat DeKalb County to start district play with a win

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 The White County High School Warriors hosted the DeKalb County Tiger, on Jan. 9. The game, originally scheduled for Jan. 10 but moved up a night due to a winter weather advisory, signaled the start of district play for White County. The Warriors, who had an up-and-down start to their season, came up big on Jan. 9 to start 1-0 in district play with a 57-46 win over the Tigers.

White County didn’t start out on top, and, much like the first month of their season, it was an uphill battle for the Warriors. Down by 2 at the half in a game that saw 12 lead changes before its conclusion, the Warriors dug in and came out strong in the third quarter outscoring the Tigers 24-15 to gain a 7-point advantage they were able to build on in the final quarter.

Tripp Pinion scored 10 from the floor and added another 6 points from the free throw line. Keaun Lewis was just 1 point behind Pinion’s team-high 16 as he was responsible for 15 of the Warriors’ 57 points. Lucas Dickerson sank three deep shots to add 9 points to the board, while Gage Stephenson scored 6 points. Tucker Pinon scored 5 points, Nate Griffin added 4 more, and Cole Sims had a single basket for 2 points. As a team, the Warriors shot 43.9 percent from the floor, while the Tigers were only able to net 33.3 percent of their shots.

Earlier in the week in a non-district matchup, the Warriors had hosted the Warren County Pioneers but came up 5 points short in securing a win. The game went back and forth with the lead changing hands 13 times before the final buzzer, but the Warriors could never garner more than a 3-point lead at any time.

Tripp Pinion led all White County shooters with 18 points, shooting 46 percent from the floor. Pinion landed just one of his 3-point attempts and, while just netting 8 points total, was out-shot behind the arc by the younger of the Pinions – Tucker – who sank a team-high two 3-pointers. Gage Stephenson scored 11 points, shooting 50 percent from the floor, but a perfect 4-for-4 from the foul line. Cole Sims added 5 points to the Warriors side of the scoreboard, and Keaun Lewis and Lucas Dickerson each had 3 points. Nate Griffin (2) and Michael Arcia-Davis (1) completed the scoring for White County.

The Warriors beat the Pioneers on the boards, out-rebounding them 27 to 21 and on defense where they had 8 steals compared to Warren County’s 3. It was the Pioneers efficiency in shooting – they sank 57.6 percent of their shots from the floor compared to White County’s 38.6 percent – that was the difference on Jan. 6.

The Warriors will be in action every Tuesday and Friday over the next five weeks, with all but one game being a district game. The district tournament is scheduled for Feb 19-25.      

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