After 24 days of not having a home game, the Dogs were back in the WAC to face conference opponent, the Paris Eagles. Coming off of a loss earlier in the week to a good Dardanelle team, the Bulldogs were determined to begin conference play on the right note. Waldron fans packed the WAC like always and got rowdy for their Bulldogs on a Friday night.
The Dogs had been accustomed to starting games slow, but tonight was far from that. Paris started the game in a 1-3-1 zone defense and Trenton Hunt was quickly able to sneak behind the defense and get a layup to fall. The Dogs were playing ferocious defense and not allowing the Eagles any open opportunities. Then Waldron began lighting it up from three-point land as “Fish McConnell” buried back-to-back threes and Hunt added one as well. Paris was forced to call a timeout and re-think things as they were already down 11-0. The Eagles responded though as they begin the apply full-court pressure against the Dogs. This slowed Waldron down and allowed the Eagles to get within 5, but as the clock was winding down in the 1st quarter, Hunt made another 3-pointer to bring the score to 16-8 Waldron advantage.
To begin the 2nd quarter the Dogs came out in a full-court press defense of their own. Both teams were forcing turnovers and getting into foul trouble. McConnell was still hot from three as he got another one to fall to push the Dogs lead to 19-10. The Eagles got in bonus early and were able to get to the free-throw line creating some easy points. Both teams were pretty stagnant on offense, but after Ethan Mayberry got an and-one layup to fall it sparked the Dogs offense before the half. Camdon Holcomb added two layups and McConnell made a putback layup to increase the Dogs lead to 28-19 headed into halftime.
McConnell opened up the scoring in the 2nd half with another 3-pointer which led Coach Atchley to resume their full-court pressure. Paris as well was applying the pressure and forcing lots of turnovers for the Dogs. The Dogs were having trouble breaking the Eagle’s press and allowed the Eagles to get within 3. Then Waldron went on an 8-2 run at the end of the 3rd quarter which consisted of 3-pointers by Lidge Stinson and Hunt, and a steal by Chris Lopez which led to a Stinson layup to make the score 39-31 to end the 3rd quarter.
The Eagle’s constant pressure all night finally got to them in the 4th as they began to foul and send the Dogs to the free-throw line. The Dogs made 8 Free throw attempts in the 4th quarter, but they could not get rid of the Eagles. They matched every shot made by the Dogs and stayed within 4 or 5 most of the 4th. The exhausted Eagles began to be careless with the ball and let the Dogs score quick buckets in transition to balloon out their lead. Lopez got a transition layup and McConnell got two which allowed the Dogs to end up on top with a final score of 55-45 to improve their record to 9-4 and 1-0 in conference.
“Fish” McConnell led the Dogs in scoring with 18 points and 7 rebounds. Hunt added 12 points and Stinson ended the night with 10.
The Dogs will travel to Danville on December 14th to face the Little Johns. Junior girls will begin action at 5:00 followed by Senior girls and Senior boys.
