By David Rogers. BOONE, N.C. — It wasn’t the Hatfields and McCoys but a basketball battle between two neighboring counties — in different states — came down to the final seconds on Dec. 28 at Lentz Eggers Gym. In the end, the High Country’s Ashe County edged eastern Tennessee’s Johnson County, 59-57, midway through the first day of the High Country Holiday Classic.
The Huskies’ senior guard Jake Grubb poured in a game-high 21 points but it was seven fourth quarter points from fellow senior Austin Grogan and four each from junior guard Eli Lemley and Bryce Peters in the final period that proved major difference makers, as well as five from Grubb in the last stanza. With the broad-sourced scoring by Ashe County in the second half, the Huskies rallied from a 13-point deficit at intermission (36-23) to tie the game at 50-50 with just 2:40 to go in the game, then kept going to claim the win.
Johnson County jumped out to a dominant first half lead with tenacious defense and hot handed early scoring by Eli Dickens, Skylar Lawson, Graham Reece and Austin West.
With eight 3-pointers in the first quarter — four by Reece — Johnson County was able to overcome Ashe County’s height advantage in the early going. All of West’s nine points for the game came in the first quarter, in the form of three shots from beyond the 3-point arc.
The pivotal fourth quarter proved too much for the Mountain City team, as Ashe County used its height advantage to better effect, rebounding, and a pressing defense forced Johnson County turnovers.
