Bulldogs Dominate Jaguars

Bulldogs Dominate Jaguars

Earle drops McCrory in impressive performance

sports@theeveningtimes.com

The Earle Bulldogs (4-1 overall, 1-0 conference) won their fourth straight game Thursday night by beating the McCrory Jaguars (0-3, 0-1) 66-31.

The Bulldogs looked consistent in the first half putting up 16 and 17 points in each respective quarter resulting in a 16-point lead for the team at the half.

That lead should have been larger though, according to Bulldogs Head Coach Billy Murray.

“I thought we should have blew the game open by halftime but they put up a good fight,” Murray said.

The Bulldogs then exploded in the third quarter by scoring 28 points, causing the mercy rule to go into effect with 2:45 left to play in the third. Playing with a running clock, the Jaguars only managed to score 16 points in the second half. Six different players had at least three points in the third quarter for the Bulldogs.

Murray believes that fresh legs played a huge part in his team’s ability to maintain an aggressive style of play throughout the game.

The Bulldogs rotated in 17 players throughout the game.

“I played the whole team,” Murray said.

“We’re pretty deep and I think the depth of our team is going to carry us through the season.”

Playing the entire team allowed the Bulldogs to continue an aggressive style of defense throughout the night, according to Murray.

“I don’t think they were used to seeing us play a man to man,” Murray said.

“We have so many athletes so I’m trying to wear teams down. I can rotate and I can sub. Can other teams do that? I’m finding that out.”

One player Murray did not rotate out often is Travon Doolittle. Doolittle led the Bulldogs in scoring with 13 points, nine of which came in the first half.

“He’s going to be the leader,” Murray said. “He’s probably the best athlete on the team. You keep the lead horse out there and everybody follows.”

The Bulldogs also benefited from nine points from Dearea Smith and eight points from Travis Rogers.

Despite the impressive conference win, Coach Murray believes his team still has areas which need improvement.

“We have a lot of things to work on, especially on the defensive end,” Murray said. “We don’t rebound as well as I think we should.”

By Collins Peeples