White County Warriors tipped off the 2025-26 basketball season Thursday night when they hosted the Whitwell Tigers. White County was quick to put points on the board, something that head coach Eric Mitchell had said was an off-season focus for the Warriors.
“The boys played really hard and made some good shots. They really passed the ball around well, too,” Mitchell said. “It was good way to start the season.”
Whitwell scored the first basket of the night with White County responding with one of their own. The two teams played evenly for the first four minutes of the game, but then the Warriors settled into the game causing the Tigers to lose the ball out of bounds, forced turnovers, and grabbed rebounds as they dominated the rest of the first quarter to take a 28-10 lead at the buzzer.
By halftime, the Warriors had run away with the game extending their lead to 36 points as they went into the locker room up 57-21. Cole Sims had scored 17 points in the first 16 minutes of play, while Tucker Pinion was right behind him with 15, showing that they were not struggling transitioning from the football gridiron to the basketball court in just a week’s time.
The Warriors came out of halftime with the same energy they had went in, adding another 22 points to their side of the scoreboard while limiting the Tigers to just seven points in the third quarter. The big lead prompted Warrior head coach Eric Mitchell to start pulling starters part way through the third quarter and letting some of his younger players get valuable minutes and build game time experience. By the fourth quarter, it was all depth players making the plays on the court. The White County bench netted another 16 points in the final frame while holding the Whitwell team to just 11 to bring make the final score Warriors 89, Tigers 37.
Leading the way for White County were Sims and Pinion who were responsible for 17 points apiece. Sims went 8 of 13 from the floor and hit one of his two free throw attempts, while Pinion hit three of his five two-point baskets and went two-for-five from behind the three-point line. Pinion also added another five points from the free throw line, missing just one foul shot on the night.
Senior Mason Steele started the night slow, taking – and sinking – just one shot in the first quarter. However, in the second frame he scored seven points and then added six more after halftime for a total of 15 points before the substitutions began. Lukas Smith and Jack Carpenter each scored nine points to round out the scoring from the starting five.
Noah Barringer added six points, while Kolt Norris had five. Noah Skeith, playing his first year of high school basketball as a senior, netted four. Finishing up the scoring for White County were Davion Beard and Griffin Adams.
Special thanks to Warrior Media’s Hunter Broyles for providing stats for this game.
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