By Johnny Sanders
Sports Editor
Tuesday night, Pinson Valley welcomed fellow 6A and cross-town rival Center Point Eagles to their gym but they were not very welcoming. In a dominating performance, the Indians crushed the visitors 79-34 behind a smothering defense and dominant scoring. Pinson Coach Darrell Barber said, “I thought we played a complete game on the defensive side of the ball. We were able to force them in to 28 turnovers. I’m proud of the fact that we placed 4 guys in double figures.”
Pinson came out of the gate shooting and put up 24 points in the first quarter, led by Caleb White who had 12 of those points for the Indians. Meanwhile, the defense held Center Point to just 7 points in the first frame. That would set the tone for the rest of the night.
In the second quarter, Pinson would take it a bit easier as they would have their lowest-scoring quarter of the night with just 17 points to Center Point’s 9. The teams would go into the locker room with Pinson in commanding lead at 41-16.
The quarter changed, but the script stayed the same. Lock-down defense and lots of scoring, as more new faces got in on the action and put up points in the third. White would continue to dominate as would Terry Conor, who had 9 of the 20 points that Pinson scored in the third quarter. Center Point continued to struggle getting anything going, scoring just 6 in the period.
Some fresh faces started to trickle in during the final quarter but again, the dominant performance continued and Pinson put up another 18, holding Center Point to 12 points and finishing the game off 79-34.
For Pinson, Caleb White finished the night leading all scorers with 24 points to go with 4 rebounds and 4 assists. Terry Conor followed closely with 21 points, 4 steals and 3 assists. Austin Coner scored 10 points with 10 steals and 7 rebounds and Amarion Bowens scored 10 points with 8 rebounds and 2 steals.
Leading scorers for Center Point were Jeremy Chatman with 23 points and Khryston Travis with 6 points.
“We are about to hit a grueling stretch of our season so we are about to find out a lot about ourselves,” said Coach Barber.
Pinson, now 9-0, will travel to Paul Bryant on Thursday to take on The Stampede. Center Point, now 4-7, will try to rebound against the Clay Chalkville Cougars Thursday night.
