02-11-12
BY JACK BULLOCK
NASHVILLE – The Nashville Hornets made sure that Anna-Jonesboro senior Brady Wright was going to have a hard time scoring during the two teams' matchup on Saturday night.

While they were at it, they shut down the rest of the Wildcats also.

Coach Brad Weathers' club, who have always hung their collective hats on the defensive and rebounding principals that have served them well, nearly tossed a second half shut out in their decisive 41-22 win at home.

Holding A-J to a atrocious 8-of-40 shooting performance, the Hornets cruised to the SIRR Mississippi Division win.

Coach Mike Chamness saw his club connect on just a single field goal in the second half as the Wildcats saw their mark slip to 14-14 overall and 3-5 in the league.

Not only did the 'Cats struggle offensively, their defense wasn't good enough to keep 6-foot-5 junior Devin Holle from getting 15-points with most of his shots coming in the paint.

Six-foot-one senior Justin Grathwohl added nine markers for the Hornets, who improved to 14-13 overall after a 4-8 start to the season.

Nashville, after losing a heart-breaking 54-52 double-overtime decision at Pinckneyville, responded with a complete game victory over Anna-Jonesboro.

A-J's high scoring senior forward Brady Wright, who had torched Sparta for 31-points on Friday night, was held to just three points in the loss Saturday night.

“They (Nashville) did get out and “D” us up. Everything we shot was off-balanced. Going away from the basket and give credit to them,” said Coach Chamness. “They did a very good job defensively. Especially on Brady (Wright).”

Tyler Vaughn led the Wildcats with seven points while sophomore Noah Fuller added six.

“I thought we played good defense tonight. We are getting better offensively. Defensively we wanted to make it as difficult as we could on Wright and (Travis) Smith. Grathwohl and Thorson denied him (Wright) the ball most of the evening,” said Coach Weathers. “Its still a team effort. Scott Brown was on Smith most of the night. Their younger guards got around us a couple of times but other than that it was a solid effort.”

While neither team came out of the gate flying offensively, Anna-Jonesboro managed to hang close with the hosts in the early going.

Vaughn scores five of his points in the opening stanza and his 3-pointer from the top of the circle gave the Wildcats a brief 5-4 lead with 3:25 left.

When senior Cody Garver scored on a lay in later in the quarter, A-J led at the end of one 7-6.

That was the end of the Anna-Jonesboro highlights for the night as the Hornets took command.

An 11-0 run to begin the second frame by Nashville doomed the visitors.

Holle scored seven of those points after Scott Brown and Keegan Anderson opened the scoring sprint with a bucket each.

Holle took a lob pass from teammate Daniel Thorson for a lay in while being fouled by Wright. His made free throw made it 13-7 Nashville.

Holle then crashed the boards for his next two baskets and when he converted an Anderson miss, A-J needed a timeout at the 3:51 mark trailing 17-7.

Anna-Jonesboro did manage to put together a brief run to close the gap to just eight at intermission.

Fuller, a reserve from the jv ranks, came off the bench to hit a pair of shots in the second quarter.

His steal and fast break lay in made it 23-15 at the break.

However Nashville turned up the defensive heat in the second half and sealed their victory with six different Hornets scoring in the third quarter.

Junior guard Chance Rueter took a pass from Anderson for a fast break conversion to get the party started.

Holle, Anderson, and Brown scored in succession and teammates Grathwohl and Thorson continued the parade.

Grathwol drilled a 3-pointer from the right corner and Thorson laid in a fast break chance to close the third stanza at 36-21 Hornets.

A basket by Vaughn with 4:39 left in the third quarter for Anna-Jonesboro was the squads' only field goal in the final 16 minutes of play.

“We've got to find other ways to score (besides Wright) and tonight we couldn't,” added Chamness. “We tried to take Holle away from the basket the best we could but it didn't work. He uses his body well and they do a good job finding him.”

Anna-Jonesboro opened the final quarter with a possession in which they missed five consecutive shots by getting four offensive rebounds. They didn't manage to score on the trip into the offensive end.

Holle closed the deal with another score in the paint and later a pair of free throws before Coach Chamness emptied the bench with 3:08 left.

Coach Weathers did the same moments later as Nashville secured the conference win.

Anna-Jonesboro shot just 20 percent for the game and were just 1-of-7 from downtown.

Nashville hit a much better percentage on the night, especially in close.

The Hornets were 17-of-28 from the floor in close although they struggled with a 1-of-11 performance from behind the arc.

Nashville won the rebounding battle 24-17 and won despite 13 turnovers.

Anna-Jonesboro finished 7-of-33 in two-point attempts and were no better from long range as they hit just 1-of-7 from deep water.

A-J will close its regular season at home next Friday against Carterville while Nashville will play host to Du Quoin on the same night.

“I'm very pleased with the effort tonight. Coming off of a ballgame like last night (loss at Pinckneyville) we were really tired and you never know how you are going to come back from a game like that,” added Coach Weathers. “I knew we would play hard and we came out with a lot of energy. Even though we didn't shoot the ball as well as we normally do, we played our way through it.”

Anna-Jonesboro (22) – Mixen 0 0 0-0 0, Fuller 2 0 2-2 6, Garver 1 0 0-0 2, Belford 0 0 0-0 0, James 0 0 0-0 0, James 0 0 0-0 0, Vaughn 2 1 0-0 7, Kemp 0 0 0-0 0, Smith 1 0 2-2 4, McFarland 0 0 0-0 0, Wright 1 0 1-2 3, Nixon 0 0 0-0 0, Hughey 0 0 0-0 0.
2FG-7, 3FG-1, FT-5-6, PF-9.
Nashville (41) – Rueter 1 0 0-0 2, Meyer 0 0 0-0 0, Grathwohl 3 1 0-0 9, Gopal 0 0 0-0 0, Brown 2 0 0-0 4, thorson 1 0 1-2 3, Anderson 4 0 0-0 8, Krawiecki 0 0 0-0 0, Stern 0 0 0-0 0, Beetley 0 0 0-0 0, Holle 6 0 3-3 15, Johannes 0 0 0-0 0.
2FG-17, 3FG-1, FT-4-5, PF-9.
Fouled Out – None.
Technical Fouls – None.