CULLMAN COUNTY – Good Hope's new basketball coach Drew Adams must be thinking he is in a dream and will not want to wake up from it.
Taking over the Raiders' program, the youngest coach in the Cullman County school system watched his ball club open the season last week with wins over Winston County and Susan Moore in the Vinemont Tip-Off Tournament and follow it on Friday night by a 48-45 buzzer-beater at Danville.
The 3-0 record was matched by another team, the Fairview Lady Aggies. With a ball club solid in starting experience, the Lady Aggies romped over Arab 64-42, Hanceville 75-26 and pulled out a 58-55 victory last Friday over a competitive J.B. Pennington unit in Blountsville.
Adams was joined by another coach making a successful varsity debut. That would be his wife, Paige Parker-Adams, now in charge of the Holly Pond Lady Broncos.
The former Cold Springs standout who had been an assistant under Scott Adams the past two seasons, took over in the summer and had her team ready to go in a 49-23 rout at New Hope last Thursday.
The rest of the new coaches in the county were unable to enjoy victory in their first opportunities.
Josh Hembree's Cullman Lady Bearcats led Decatur for much of the contest, but couldn't finish it off and lost 56-48.
Tiffany Hinkle-Pope is now running the St. Bernard Lady Saints. They fell to Athens Bible in the opener 46-39 and came back two nights later with a 52-40 setback to Southeastern.
On Friday night, Amanda Swann took the Good Hope Lady Raiders to Danville and ran into a buzzsaw. Danville, a squad that is experienced and plays with passion, showed it by running past the Lady Raiders 55-18.
West Point and Holly Pond got the season going Thursday with dominating games on the road. The Warriors shot past Vinemont 64-36, outscoring the Eagles 30-11 in the second half.
Holly Pond blasted New Hope 79-51, scoring 44 points through the first half.
Both of these teams now look forward to their next assignment. They face each other Tuesday at Felton Easterwood Gymnasium.
Vinemont spent last week playing three games at home. The Eagles hosted a Tip-Off Tournament and were unable to hold leads against Susan Moore and Winston County, falling 59-45 to the Bulldogs and 58-49 to the Yellow Jackets. Then the Eagles met West Point and struggled after the second half with 11 points and now look to road games for the upcoming week at Cold Springs Tuesday and on to Good Hope Friday evening.
St. Bernard's Saints saw their only starter, Christian Peterson, carry them to a 71-68 victory against Athens Bible and score 31 a couple of nights later vs. Southeastern. But the rest of the Saints were unable to provide a scoring punch with Greg Boatright's squad 1-1 after a 60-37 home loss to the Mustangs.
Fairview started the season with a 74-55 loss at Arab. Then Eddie Groves' Aggies topped Hanceville 61-46 at home and on Friday night, went to Blountsville and downed J.B. Pennington 54-35.
The Aggies have a Tuesday rematch with Arab, this one at Joe Shults Gymnasium. On Friday, the Aggies head to the southwest part of the county, facing the Cold Springs Eagles.
Cullman was defeated 59-32 in the opener at Decatur. The Bearcats' game with Hartselle last Friday was postponed due to the Tigers still being in the football playoffs.
Now for this week, Bobby Meyer's Bearcats visit Guntersville on Tuesday and have back-to-back games at the Cullman campus with Boaz on Thursday and Lawrence County Friday night.
Cold Springs is last, but not the least to begin the season. The Lady Eagles and Eagles host Vinemont Tuesday then get Fairview at Jesse George Gymnasium on Friday.
It will be a highly anticipated battle in the girls’ game Friday with the Lady Eagles and Fairview, two teams with talent and expected to be at the top all season long in county competition.
This will be a different time for Cold Springs' coach Tim Willoughby. The Eagles will go to work on the hardwood without Triston Chambers and Josh Freeman, who are now at Samford University and Snead State Community College. They were superior in providing the Eagles offense from different areas of the floor and valuable leadership that will not be easy to replace.
Tuesday's games between West Point and Holly Pond have plenty of story lines. The home opener for Parker-Adams with the Lady Broncos, led by sharpshooter Ruth Horton, along with Taylor Tankersley, Molly Gambrill and Haley Higginbotham, face John Welborn's Lady Warriors, who have veteran experience in Bailee Yearwood, Madison Roberts and Lillie Burdette who are seniors, plus good young talent in sophomore Olivia Ball, eighth-grader Alexia Shaddix and Mckenzie Carter.
The varsity game will feature the Warriors' outside attack of Cameron Moore with the dribble penetration of Brandon Farley and the inside play of Alex Hernandez, against the veteran Bronco personnel of Drew Jones, Bailey Smith and Dawson Foust.
West Point gets Hanceville for its opener at Jim Boyd Gymnasium on Friday, while the Broncos' game with the Warriors is their lone assignment for this week.
This week's local basketball schedule:
- MONDAY: Good Hope @ Meek, St. Bernard @ J.B. Pennington
- TUESDAY: West Point @ Holly Pond, Arab @ Fairview, Vinemont @ Cold Springs, Cullman @ Guntersville, Dora @ Hanceville
- THURSDAY: Boaz @ Cullman, J.B. Pennington @ Hanceville
- FRIDAY: Fairview @ Cold Springs, Vinemont @ Good Hope, Lawrence County @ Cullman, Hanceville @ West Point, St. Bernard @ Winston County.
- SATURDAY: Danville Girls Thanksgiving Classic
Be sure to follow our coverage this week in local basketball and throughout the 2016-17 season.
Copyright 2016 Humble Roots, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
