Tyner has a veteran team this high school basketball season, and the Rams looked like it Tuesday in their season opener at Central.
Showing a variety of defenses, all of which were successful, Tyner smothered the rebuilding Purple Pounders in a 64-47 District 6-AA victory.
The Rams return four starters from a 19-win team. Central is seeking successors for four starters off last year’s district regular-season championship team that joined district-tournament champion Brainerd in the state tournament.
“A district win, we’ll take that any game,” Tyner coach Keitha Booker said. “It was a nice crowd. We played hard on both ends of the floor. We came into a tough environment and got a tough win.”
Tyner never trailed after going up 5-4. The second quarter was when the Rams began to gain momentum, leading by as much as 25-9 in that period.
Central’s points in the second quarter were a layup by Moses Houston and 2-of-5 free-throw shooting. Meanwhile, four of Tyner’s seven field goals in that quarter were the result of forced turnovers – some in the backcourt, some in the frontcourt.
“Defense is one thing we’ve been working on,” Booker said. “As a team our approach was to pressure the ball, box out and get every 50-50 ball. We did mix our defenses up. We pressed, we played man-to-man, we played zone, what have you. We knew changing up our defenses would probably cause them some problems.”
It seemed when the Pounders showed any sign of success against Tyner’s defense, Booker would change it to another. And he didn’t need timeouts to do it.
“They always looked they were on the same page with everybody,” Central coach Rick Rogers said. “It’s a brand new page for us.”
All-state candidate Kevin Cameron led Tyner with 25 points. No other Rams player had more than Jaylen Bowens’ eight.
“That’s one thing we’ve got to work on,” Booker said on finding scoring help for Cameron. “As time goes by, I think we’ll get that.”
Central was led by its lone veteran, 6-foot-7 post player McClendon Curtis, although he picked up his third foul late in the first quarter. He was on the bench less than three minutes into the second before Rogers had him back in the game.
“No way we could take the lead without him in the game,” Rogers said.
Curtis ended up with 18 points and 14 rebounds, and those three fouls. Brett Abshire added 11 points for the Pounders, but none were in the first three quarters.
“We can’t simulate their length and athleticism in practice,” Rogers said of the Rams. “Defensively, they bring athletes at you. They’re one of the top two teams in our district. We realize what we’re going to have do to get back to the top. It’s just going to take a lot of time.”
Contact Kelley Smiddie at ksmiddie@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6653. Follow him on Twitter @KelleySmiddie.