MAGNET COVE -- A difficult shooting night and a bevy of turnovers proved costly for the previously undefeated Eagles of Cutter Morning Star Monday in the Magnet Cove senior basketball tournament.
Cutter Morning Star (3-1) finished 2-for-12 from the arc and 9-for-16 at the free throw line as Glen Rose pulled away in the final quarter for a 52-45 win. The Eagles earned 13 steals in the game, but only made six assists in contrast to 22 turnovers.
Head coach Matt Carter said his team played poorly in all phases of the game. He said he was disappointed in their effort and execution in the loss.
"I will give Glen Rose a lot of credit," Carter said. "They did a good job in their 1-3-1 of pushing us away from the basket and disrupting what we were trying to do in the half court offensively.
"But, for me, when you have 22 turnovers and your assist-to-turnover ratio is 6-22, that is not very good. It means we did not play very well together as a unit. I did not think we played well on both ends of the court. That is uncharacteristic of the way we played through three games."
The teams traded 3-pointers to open up the fourth quarter. Sophomore Ryan Brown's trey put the Eagles ahead 39-38 for their final lead of the game.
Glen Rose pulled ahead with fast break layups in the fourth quarter while multiple Eagles players missed the front end of 1-and-1 situations at the free throw line. Cutter Morning Star was 0-for-4 on free throws in the final quarter until Brown sank two to make the score 51-43 with 40 seconds left in the game.
Brown scored 33, 35 and 20 in the first three games of the season. Carter commended the Beavers for their team defense.
"They made it very difficult," Carter said. "Everybody knows who he is, but I felt like they had a lot to do with it with what they did.
"Sometimes, he did try to force it a little bit, trying to do too much rather than getting his teammates involved. Overall, I thought they did a good job."
Brown finished with 19 points on 7-for-12 shooting. He also grabbed five rebounds and made seven steals.
"When he is getting double-teamed like that, I want to see him involved as a person who distributes the ball and can score as well," Carter said. "He's got to do a better job of that moving forward."
Little separated the two teams for the first three-plus quarters. Cutter Morning Star senior Mason Treat scored the first two baskets of the game and the Eagles pressured Glen Rose into multiple turnovers, but the Beavers eventually made six straight shots and the teams were locked at 14-14 after the first quarter.
They continued to exchange the lead throughout the early second quarter. The Eagles pressured high on defense, but turned the ball over on their own.
Cutter Morning Star fell behind 26-20 before a flagrant foul called on Glen Rose knocked Treat to the floor. Junior Rhett Barrett made both free throws. A bucket from senior Jaylen Puckett made the score 26-24 at halftime in favor of the Beavers.
Both teams struggled from the floor in the third quarter. The Eagles were 1-for-6 from 3-point in the quarter and 2-for-12 in the game.
The Eagles outrebounded the Beavers 18-14 and shot 46.9 percent, 15 of 32, on 2-point field goals. Treat was the only other player for Cutter Morning Star in double figures with 12 points.
Treat and Colby Heaton each added four rebounds. Heaton led the team Monday with four assists.
The Eagles will face Spring Hill today in the fifth place game of the tournament at 5:30 p.m. Carter said his team played out of character Monday in their effort and attitude.
"We worked on a lot of things today in practice that we did not do well last night," Carter said on Tuesday. "We weren't in the right positions in our presses a lot, especially late in the game. And we worked on just effort.
"To me, a lot of our problem last night was our attitude and effort. Hopefully, we will go back over there and we will be able to get after them a little bit and play the right way."
Sports on 11/29/2017