Indians rout Rock Hill

Photo by JOE L. HUGHES II Gaffney forward Johnny Woods attempts a lay-up as a Rock Hill defender tries to draw a charge during Tuesday's contest. The Indians won the game, 68-43. If Tuesday night's performance by the Gaffney basketball squad is an indicator of things to come for the team, then the future is looking mighty bright for the Indians.

Gaffney, finally able to play at full strength after the return of football players David Dewberry and Johnny Woods, put the hammer down on Rock Hill with a 68-43 triumph Tuesday night.

The team, which has adopted the nickname "The Runts" due to being outsized by most of their opponents, used that to their advantage by sprinting up and down the court- leaving the opposing Bearcats winded and frustrated.

"The effort was definitely good," Gaffney head coach Mark Huff said. "(Rock Hill) tried to run with us, which is playing right into our advantage. Fortunately, we were able to make it work."

However, the Indians began the contest rather sluggish, being beat up on the boards by the larger Bearcat squad. Rock Hill opened the game with a 6-0 run that prompted Huff to call a timeout to settle his team down.

"During that timeout I had to tell them that we had to do something on the boards," Huff said. "Five offensive rebounds is unacceptable. But we made up for it by keeping to our gameplan and chipping away at them."

The Indians answered with an 18-8 run to end the quarter, primarily helped by the insertion of senior forward Johnny Woods into the lineup midway through the quarter as well as the accurate shooting of guard Jazz Palmer.

"Palmer's shooting really helped us during that stretch," Huff said. "We really began to feed off of what he was doing and things steadily started going our way."

Things continued to swing toward Gaffney in the second stanza as the team used a suffocating brand of defense to push the Bearcats into several turnovers on their own side of the court.

By halftime, what was once a 6- point Rock Hill lead had turned into a 40-19 advantage for the Indians.

"We forced turnovers, and that was all we could ask for on that end of the court," Huff said. "We simply stopped letting them have those easy buckets they were getting early on. Once we started doing that, we began to find our rhythm just a bit."

Gaffney pushed the lead to as much as 30 with close to six minutes left in the final quarter, with many of their starters having already begun preparation for the ride back down Highway 5.

But even during that time, Huff could be seen on the sideline continuing to coach his team, trying to erase some of their mistakes.

"We got a little careless in the second half with the ball," Huff said. "There was a lot of good effort by all of the players. But the turnovers are way too high for us to get to where we want to be."

Palmer led the way for the Indians with 17 points, while Jeff Brown was right behind him on the stat sheet with 12. Dewberry, in his first game of action since being selected to the North-South All-Star game, had 11.

Huff, though pleased with the win, believes the team is far from where he hopes the team could be, putting part of the blame on the successful football season.

"We are still in the process of finding ourselves as a team," Huff said. "Many of our players missed four weeks of practice due to the football team making it to the round of 4 in the state playoffs. With two more playing in the North-South All Star game last week, this is really the first time we have been at full strength.

"I liked the way we played, but I know we can get better and believe with a few more days of practice and getting used to what each other is doing we will get there."

The Indians take on region rival Byrnes at home Friday.

Tip-off is expected to take place around 8 p.m.