Bulldogs get a much needed

Bulldogs get a much needed

Earle rebounds from rough week to beat Cross County

By Mark Randall news @ theeveningtimes .com After an up and down week which saw Earle suffer back-to-back losses, the Bulldogs got an impressive home win against Cross County 70-47 in a game that may be the season changer that they needed.

Earle (13-9 overall, 9-3 conference) began the week with an 89-50 win in McCrory, then dropped a pair to White County Central 46-42 on the road, and 57-47 at home to Bay.

Coach Carl Miller said he told the team after the loss to Bay to keep up the effort on defense and take that energy to the next game.

Miller noticed a different team on Tuesday. They played solid defense then found their Bulldog swagger on offense.

“We showed up tonight,” Miller said. “I saw a different squad. We hit a little slump. But they played a complete game on offense and defense. They played Bulldog style, especially in the second half.”

The Bulldogs got off to a 15-11 start at the end of the first period then widened it to 28-21 at half time.

Earle’s defense held the Thunderbirds to only eight points in the third, then poured on the offense. The Bulldogs went on a 17 point run in the third with Darius Cisero, who had been in a slump, hitting four three pointers.

Miller said it was good to see their team leader break out.

“I told Cisero, I’m not worried about how many shots you take,” Miller said. “I just want you to keep shooting, Your shot will come back. You look at guys like (Steph) Curry.

They might miss 10 or 15.

But at the end of the night, they hit 10 or 15. That’s what shooters do. And he’s the team leader. If they see that he doesn’t know how

win at home

to come out if it, then they won’t know how to come out of it. He picked it up.”

Miller said although the team lost to White County and Bay, the team has played good defense. He knew it was only a matter of time before their offense came back.

He could tell the team wanted it Tuesday.

“They were mad after Bay,” Miller said. “After White County I didn’t come down hard on them.

Instead, I pointed out what they did good. They’ve been a little demoralized.

We haven’t been playing Bulldog basketball since late December. I told them we needed to get back on track and get things going.

The defense is there. It’s he offense that we needed.

When we went in at half time they told me ‘don’t worry. We’ve got this one.’ I knew they wanted it because we were home. And they did.”

Miller said he also told the team not to focus on their record. He wants them to focus on the next two conference games and play better going in to the district tournament.

After blowing leads at home against both EPC and Marked Tree, Miller said the team is playing better.

“When it comes to the district tournament, your record doesn’t matter,” Miller said. “So if we are playing better at this time of year, that’s good because we haven’t peaked out yet.”

Darius Cisero had 17 points to lead the team.

Kevon Jackson pumped in 16 points.

“That’s what I have been looking for from them,” Miller said. “The last few games they have been in single digits.

Miller said they are fired up heading into a rematch with Marked Tree on Thursday.

“They’re fired up,” Miller said. “They want that one back. We’re going to go up there and try and get that one back. It’s a rivalry game. It will be a hostile environment. It’s going to be sold out. Like I told them, we had them on the ropes when they came here. We had them down and we need to keep them down. They have a good team and are well coached. But when you have the No. 1 team in 2A beat at home, you’ve got to finish it. And we let them off the hook.

“I think we can go up there and get one back.

And I think we are headed in the right direction.

Morale is back and I think we’re feeling pretty confident. And we’ll better going forward.”

After a couple of tough losses last week, the Earle Bulldogs had a reason to smile again Tuesday night following a win against Cross County.

Photo by Mark Randall