It rained on Jared Hensley’s birthday party Thursday night.
Hensley, the likable and personable Athletic Director at Soddy Daisy High School, celebrated his 42nd birthday on Thursday and had to work late overseeing a couple of basketball games, but the celebration was spoiled somewhat at the two host teams only won one of the two games.
The Soddy Daisy Lady Trojans did their part as they defeated Sale Creek by a convincing 42-20 final in the opener, but the same couldn’t be said for the Soddy Daisy boys as they dropped a tough 57-42 verdict to the CSTHEA Patriots.
In case you’re not totally familiar with the Patriots, they are a group of home-school kids who just happen to be pretty good at basketball. CSTHEA stands for Chattanooga Southeast Tennessee Home Educators Association and they include students from all around the Chattanooga area.
Randy Evans is their coach and he was a happy fellow following the game where his kids improved to 9-6 overall.
“We’ll take it,” Evans said while celebrating with his players outside their dressing room following the game.
“I thought we were much more patient on the offensive end as we didn’t want to get in a running game. We also knew that Shawn Pangle is a really good shooter, so we didn’t want to get lost on defense.
“We know he can shoot and he proved it by scoring his team’s first eight points, but we did a good job the rest of the way. We took care of the basketball and really played well in the second half.
“Boss Hoewischer came up with some big buckets late and Jayden Hall turned the game around with his defense. And I thought that Maguire Evans and Jonathan Swanson hit some big shots late, but overall, we played pretty smart and it paid off,” Evans added.
Bill Eller is the head coach for Soddy Daisy, but wasn’t present as he was home sick. Assistant coach Tom Klempin was the man in charge of the Trojans, but he was reluctant to talk afterwards.
“I’d rather you talk to the kids as it’s all about them. I really don’t want to talk as I have nothing to say right now,” he said before turning and walking away.
Pangle scored the first eight points for the Trojans as they had a 9-2 lead early. He added two more in the first quarter as his team built a 14-11 lead at the first break, but only had four more the rest of the way as the Patriots did a good job of defending him and challenging every shot he took.
Logan Thompson got the Patriots within a point at 14-13 with a putback in the first minute of the second quarter and his layup two minutes in knotted the score at 15-15.
A 3 from Jonathan Love and back-to-back buckets from Nathan Landtroop and Braxton Angel put the Trojans ahead by five at 22-17 with 2:32 to play, but the Patriots came right back to finish the half on an 8-2 run for a 25-24 lead at intermission, sparked by consecutive 3s from Jayden Hall and Jonathan Swanson in the last minute.
Pangle scored on an inside move to start the second half as the Trojans led for the last time at 26-25 with 7:25 left in the third, but the Patriots finished the quarter on an 11-3 run for a 36-29 lead with one quarter remaining and it never got much closer.
Landtroop and Kale Johnson scored back-to-back buckets to get Soddy Daisy within 39-33 with 4:57 to play, but the Patriots sank eight of 11 free throws in the final minute to slowly pull away.
Jonathan Swanson scored 18 points to lead the winners while Thompson and Hoewischer were also in double figures for the winners with 11 and 10 points, respectively.
Pangle was the only Soddy Daisy player in double figures as he finished with 14 points. Love and Landtroop were next with six points apiece.
Soddy Daisy had an unofficial 21-20 edge in rebounding as Bug Hughes and Landtroop both snagged eight each for the Trojans.
Ryan Swanson came off the bench and grabbed eight for the Patriots while Hoewischer snagged five.
SODDY DAISY GIRLS 42, SALE CREEK 20: The Lady Trojans improved to 8-9 with Thursday’s win that included 12 straight points to start the game.
Maggie Garner scored Sale Creek’s first bucket with a layup at the 4:13 mark of the second quarter, but the Lady Trojans enjoyed a 15-7 scoring advantage in that quarter for a 24-7 lead at halftime.
Hannah Patterson was tops for Soddy Daisy with 17 points while Alivia Hall followed with 10. Garner was tops for Sale Creek with six points.
GIRLS SUMMARY
SALE CREEK 0 7 9 4 -- 20
SODDY DAISY 9 15 7 11 -- 42
SALE CREEK (20) – Ellis 4, Arnold 2, Holland 3, Garner 6, Miles 1, Smith, Defore, Ke. Escobar, Levi, Ky. Escobar 4.
SODDY DAISY (42) – Edmondson, Crawley, Alivia Hall 10, Faires 5, Harding, Trimiar 6, Varner 4, Hannah Patterson 17.
3-POINT GOALS: Sale Creek 1 (Holland); Soddy Daisy 3 (Faires, Patterson 2).
BOYS SUMMARY
CSTHEA 11 14 11 21 -- 57
SODDY DAISY 14 10 5 13 -- 42
CSTHEA (57) – Daniell 5, Logan Thompson 11, Boss Hoewischer 10, Jonathan Swanson 18, R. Swanson 2, Hall 5, Evans 6.
SODDY DAISY (42) – Bridgman, Shawn Pangle 14, Johnson 4, Mull, Natale, Ervin, Eller 4, Love 6, Landtroop 6, Bailey, Stewart 2, Hughes 4, Angel 2.
3-POINT GOALS: CSTHEA 8 (Hoewischer 2, J. Swanson 3, Hall, Evans 2); Soddy Daisy 3 (Pangle 2, Love).
(Email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)