Charleston scores early and often on Doniphan
CHARLESTON -- The Charleston Bluejays totally dominated the visiting Doniphan Dons on Friday night, 98-77.
It was the eighth straight win for Charleston and their 18th of the season to go with three losses.
Charleston scored early and often in the opening frame as they built up a 29-7 lead. The tone of the contest was really established at the 5:09 mark when Ashton Farmer ignited the homecoming crowd with a reverse dunk to make the score 10-2. At that point, the Dons knew it was going to be a long night.
The Dons had little or no opportunity to go inside offensively against the bigger Bluejays, so they had to depend on their outside shooting to stay in the game. The outside game just was not there for Doniphan either and they continued to fall farther behind in the second quarter.
The visitors could not connect on a three-point bucket in the entire first half. As a result, they trailed by a 49-20 count at the half.
In the third quarter, Doniphan started to find its range from beyond the arc and went on a 19-6 run to cut the lead to 55-39, but that was as close as they would get. Ashton Farmer, who had a game-high 24 points for the 'Jays, made his presence felt when he collected 14 points in the third period. The Bluejays lead was 72-50 at the end of three.
"I thought we played well. Right there in the third quarter, Doniphan started playing a lot better," said Charleston coach Danny Farmer. "Doniphan is a team that keeps coming at you, and I was concerned that we would not respond. Tonight we responded."
The balanced scoring attack of Charleston featured eight players who scored, four of them in double figures.
For Doniphan, Danny Kellas was tops with 21 and Michael Pigg tallied 16.
The only question left to be answered in the final quarter was whether the Bluejays would score 100 points. Despite numerous attempts from the charity stripe in the waning minutes, the shots would not fall.
Charleston won the jayvee contest 61-56.
On Tuesday the Bluejays will travel to Hayti to take on the Indians.