Red Bay freshmen roll

By Staff
Mike Self FCT Sports Editor
RED BAY - Red Bay used a balanced scoring attack and a dominant second quarter to defeat Tharptown 54-25 on Thursday in ninth-grade boys action at the Franklin County Tournament.
Derrick Miller finished with a game-high 11 points to lead the Tigers, who out-scored Tharptown 20-2 in the second quarter to blow open a close game.
Red Bay led just 9-7 after one quarter before scoring the first 18 points of the second quarter.
Josh Senkbeil opened the second with a layup, and Miller nailed a trey from the right corner to extend the lead to seven.
A steal and layup by Anthony Horton made it 16-7 and forced Tharptown to call a timeout.
The Wildcats could not come up with an answer for Red Bay's tenacious defense, however, as the Tigers continued to add to the lead.
Another basket by Senkbeil and a putback by Horton pushed the margin to 13.
Matt Young then scored on a putback, and Grant Fancher made a free throw as the lead swelled to 16 points with 1:42 remaining before halftime.
Back-to-back layups by Justin Page capped the run and gave Red Bay a 27-7 lead.
A jumper by Nachum Taylor at the 1:00 mark gave Tharptown its first points of the quarter and ended Red Bay's run of 22 straight points.
Wesley Jarnigan's layup gave Red Bay a 29-9 lead at the half.
Page finished with nine points for the Tigers, and Young added eight. Pablo Makepeace had seven, and Horton finished with six.
Taylor and Joseph Parker each made a three-pointer as part of an 8-2 run by the Wildcats that trimmed the lead to 31-17 midway through the third quarter.
Red Bay responsed with a 9-3 spurt, capped by Page's three-pointer, to build the lead back to twenty heading to the fourth quarter.
Taylor led Tharptown with eight points, and Parker added seven. Cody Shacker had six.
Red Bay advanced to face Phil Campbell Saturday at 6:15 p.m.