George Wythe Maroons defeat Rural Retreat Indians 86-54

By JOHN HERNDON/Correspondent

The George Wythe Maroon boys’ varsity basketball team made a trip to the west end of the county on Monday night to face the Indians of Rural Retreat.  George Wythe played its brand of basketball of pressure defense and fast paced offense to pick-up its 17th win of the season by the score of 86-54.
The Indians’ Aaron Spradlin got things going on a jumper for two with 58 seconds off the clock.  From that point, the Maroons wasted no time in taking control of the game.  Tyler Akers and Kenneth dropped in a couple of three-pointers and GW raced ahead of the Indians to a 10-2 lead with 5:08 left in the period.
After a Rural Retreat time out, the Maroons went right back to work as Waugh, who had a game high 23 points and 5 three-point shots, sank another long bomb. Then Akers followed with a deuce and the Maroons stretched their lead to 21-8.
Rural Retreat would get back to within 10 at 23-13 as Matthew Thompson, the leading Indian scorer with 17 on the night, hit a fading corner jumper as the first period buzzer sounded.
The Maroons continued to apply the heat on both sides of the ball in the second quarter.  Tristan Boysaw grabbed a steal halfway through the period which he topped off with a slam dunk putting the Maroons up 37-19.  Drew White established himself once again underneath the boards for GW and would net six of his nine points for the game during the period as GW finished the first half up 53-26.
The third quarter saw more of the same from the Maroons.  Waugh and Akers continued to add to their point tally and GW Coach Joey Russell kept substituting fresh players, which only added to the Indians demise.  Robert Herndon also contributed six points in a stretch of a minute and GW found itself up 73-36.
Rural Retreat called another time out, but after Stephen Scott sank a jumper to give GW its largest lead of the evening at 75-38, the writing was on the wall and the Maroons had a 75-43 advantage as the third period expired.
The Indians Jeremy Stepp found himself on the free throw line as the fourth quarter commenced.  After missing his free throw, he followed his shot with a layup to put Rural Retreat within 30.
This would be as close as the Indians would get for the rest of the night.  Waugh added another three pointer and Tyler Atwood dropped in one as well .  The Maroon bench, which had long been cleared, continued the same aggressive play down to the wire to round out the evening.
George Wythe is scheduled to travel to Northwood on Friday.  Rural Retreat is slated to be home Friday against Holston.

George Wythe 23 30 22 11 – 86
Rural Retreat 13 13 17 11 – 54

George Wythe – Scott 2, Herndon 8, Atwood 5, Akers 16, Moore 2, Wilder 2, Waugh 23, Boysaw 15, White 9, Lester 4.
Rural Retreat – Huffard 3, Hadaway 4, Whalen 3, Cox 9, Thompson 17, Bridges 4, Stepp 5, Spradlin 3, Garner 4.