Lookout Valley's Larry McCullough (10) beats Sale Creek's Hayden Abbott (2) on the layup in first half action Tuesday at Sale Creek.The first and second quarters were virtually polar opposites for Sale Creek's boys Tuesday night in their District 6-A high school basketball game against Lookout Valley. And Sale Creek coach David Helton summed up the difference in one word -- "intensity."
Boosted by a 28-point second quarter, the Panthers turned around an early 10-point deficit and defeated the Yellow Jackets 66-57 at Sale Creek.
Sale Creek (14-6, 7-0) not only remains the lone unbeaten team in the district, but it now has a two-game lead in the loss column over Lookout Valley (9-10, 4-2) and Van Buren County (5-2 6-A). The Eagles play Friday at Sale Creek.
"It'll be a tough game Friday night," said Helton, whose team won 69-66 at Van Buren on Dec. 5. "I think we're very beatable if we're not on our game. The things we have to focus on are intensity and effort. If we're not giving great effort, we can be mediocre."
The Panthers showed signs of what Helton was talking about when they fell behind 16-6 in Tuesday's game. They also committed eight fouls in the opening period with four of them being charging calls.
"They did a nice job taking away the drive," Helton said. "We didn't have good awareness to just pull up and take what they were giving us."
But beginning with Micah King making two free throws for the final points of the first quarter, Sale Creek scored 16 consecutive points. Twice in the second quarter the Panthers led by nine.
"Especially with as many freshmen and sophomores we're playing, it's hard trying to keep up with the intensity Sale Creek plays with," said Lookout Valley coach Eric Ford, whose team ended up with 26 turnovers. "They run so fast and get you in a hurry."
The Jackets managed to get the deficit down to 36-32 by halftime and were within three points early in the fourth quarter. Sale Creek pushed out to its only double-digit lead at 60-50, and afterward 61-55 was as close as Lookout Valley could get.
"We got it to six a few times; then we'd throw the ball away or take a bad shot," Ford said. "That's the kind of stuff that drives us nuts as coaches. They'll learn eventually."
Helton praised the play of Hayden Abbott for helping turn things around. His 18 points were in the first three quarters with 12 coming in the second.
Teammate Dylan Johnson added 13 points and Lance Burton had all 10 of his points in the fourth quarter.
Darrion Robinson was shut out in the first quarter but led Lookout Valley with 15 points. Larry McCullough, whose six charges drawn set a single-game school record, according to Ford, scored 11 points and Terry Billingsley chipped in with 10.
Contact Kelley Smiddie at ksmiddie@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6653. Follow him at twitter.com/KelleySmiddie.