Roff boys ‘play ugly,’ win big

Lady Tigers fal

By BOB FORREST Sports Writer

DALE — Like most successful coaches, Roff’s Kale Simon is a tough man to please.

Just a few minutes after watching his Tigers (No. 1 in Class B) hit more than half their shots and dominate the boards en route to taking apart Class 2A No. 8 Dale 60-39 on the road Tuesday night to improve to 6-0 on the season, Simon put his team’s performance under a microscope — and found a few bugs.

“Tonight was ugly, but when you play ugly and win by 20, that’s a fortunate situation,” Simon said. “We can flow better. Offensively, our flow isn’t very good right now. I’m hoping that will come with time.

“I’m not taking anything away from Dale. They’re one of the best defensive teams we’ll see all year. But when somebody is open, we should be able to get that person the ball in the right spot.

“We’ve agreed as a team that we’re going to judge the games not by the scoreboard but by our production, and right now we know there are many things that can be improved upon.”

Despite their young coach’s concerns, the Tigers found enough openings and hit enough shots to lead from start to finish — and by double digits for the final 17:19 of the game — and manhandle a Dale squad that entered the game unbeaten and untested in its first two starts of the season (double-digit victories over Latta and Amber-Pocasset).

In the girls game, third-ranked Dale remained unbeaten with a 79-28 victory behind 23 points from Brenna Burnett and 21 from Kaylee Wilkins.

Boys

Roff 60, Dale 39

Dayne Parker and Dylan Lemley combined for 36 points, and Brendon Barr and Brendan McCurry were also in double figures for the Tigers, who had four players — McCurry, Lemley, Barr and Aaron Cornell — with at least twice as many rebounds as the leader for Dale. For the game, Roff outrebounded the Pirates 36-21, and Simon’s defense played one of its best quarters in his three seasons at the school in the eight minutes before intermission to break the game open.

Dale trailed just 10-8 after a fast-break layup by Jimmy Doolin with 3:30 left in the opening quarter, and Doolin’s 3-pointer in transition less than a minute into the second period trimmed a 17-11 Roff lead to three.

But the Pirate star had just one field goal — a 3-point basket in the opening minute of the fourth quarter that made it 43-32 and gave Dale a glimmer of hope — and five points over the final 23 minutes.

“Doolin had 10 points at the half, and we felt like we could do a better job on him,” Simon noted. “Our guys did a really good job on him in the second part of the second quarter, and for the rest of the game.”

Roff grabbed a 6-0 lead on 3-pointers by McCurry and Parker in the first 1:32 and made it 8-2 on a spinning one-hander by Lemley with 4:48 left in the opening quarter. After Doolin’s basket trimmed the lead to two, Lemley found McCurry with a beautiful bounce pass that he turned into a layup to cap a 3-shot possession and make it 10-6. McCurry’s second trey of the period at the 2:32 mark and a spinning eight-footer by Parker with seven seconds left sent Roff to the second quarter with a 15-10 lead.

The Tigers clamped down on defense over the rest of the second quarter after Doolin’s 3 with 7:04 left in the half made it a 3-point game, holding the Pirates without a field goal in 10 attempts and building their lead to 28-16 at intermission. Lemley hit three point-blank baskets and added a free throw, Parker hit his only shot and was 2-for-2 from the line, and Barr — making his first start in a Roff uniform — also hit a lay-up off a nice feed from Cornell as Roff finished the half on an 11-2 run.

Despite turning the ball over on two of their first three possessions of the second half, the Tigers held Dale scoreless for the first 3:47 of the third period and built their lead to 17 (33-16) on a spinning shot by Lemley and a 3-pointer from the top of the key by Parker off a McCurry assist in the first two minutes.

Roff managed just one basket — a fast-break lay-up by Barr off another McCurry assist to make it 37-20 at the 2:40 mark — over the next five minutes, however. The Pirates scored seven points in just 66 seconds — the last three on a long 3-point basket by Turner Coon with 1:27 left in the quarter — to trim their deficit to 37-27.

But the Tigers scored six of the final eight points in the period — on a long jumper by Barr off one of Lemley’s four assists in the game, a fast-break layup by Parker after a steal and assist from Lemley and a pair of McCurry free throws — and took a 43-29 lead to the final eight minutes.

Doolin’s trey early in the fourth quarter made it 43-32, and a putback by Coon with 6:42 left again pulled the Pirates to within 11 at 45-34. But they never got closer.

Roff’s defense held Dale without a point for the next 4:20. By the time Tanner Greene drained a long baseline jumper with 2:22 remaining, the Tigers’ lead had ballooned to 54-34.

A pair of Barr free throws with 5:15 left started the decisive 9-0 spurt. Parker hit a jumper in transition at the 3:56 mark to make it 49-34, and Barr supplied the backbreaker when he grabbed a rebound after Lemley had missed the second of two free throws with 3:13 left, then found Lemley — Roff’s 6-6 center — cutting to the basket for a lay-up five seconds later to extend the lead to 52-34. Barr capped the flurry with a lay-up of his own off Cornell’s fourth, and final, assist of the night with 2:36 remaining, and the Pirates didn’t get closer than 17 the rest of the way.

Parker, who joins McCurry and Cornell in the state’s best small-school backcourt, continued his red-hot start to the season with 20 points — despite sitting for the first 2:45 of the fourth quarter after picking up his fourth foul late in the third — on 8-of-10 shooting. Lemley had the kind of efficient outing — 16 points on 7-of-12 shooting and 10 rebounds to complete a double-double — that has become his trademark; Barr had seven rebounds and a team-high three steals to go with his 11 points, and McCurry finished with 10 points, six rebounds and two assists. Cornell missed his only three shots, but he pulled down six rebounds in addition to dishing out four assists for the Tigers, who were 22-of-43 from the field and 12-of-14 from the free throw line.

Doolin led Dale with 14 points but missed seven of his last eight shots, and Darin Greene added eight points (six in the second half) while hitting three of his five field-goal attempts. The rest of the Pirates were a combined 6-for-26, however. As a team Dale was 14-for-44 from the field and a miserable 8-for-20 from the line.

GIRLS

Dale 79, Roff 28

The Lady Pirates (3-0) held Roff (3-3) to two field goals in 19 attempts en route to building a 39-6 halftime lead. Despite a brief flurry early in the second half, things didn’t get any better for the Lady Tigers over the final 16 minutes.

Roff finished 9 for 38 from the field for the game, with three of the field goals 3-point baskets by Ashlyn McCullar. The Lady Tigers simply had no answer for Burnett, an All-State candidate at center who was 9 for 14 from the field and also pulled down eight rebounds.

Burnett scored nine points in the first quarter as the Lady Pirates raced to a 25-3 lead. She added 13 points in the third quarter as Dale’s halftime lead grew to 63-17 heading to the final period.

Wilkins was 7-for-10 from the field (6 for 6 from inside the arc) and 6 for 6 from the line and added three rebounds and three of Dale’s 12 steals. The Lady Pirates hit 29 of 59 shots and outrebounded the smaller Lady Tigers 36-22.

McCullar was 3 for 8 from long range and added a free throw to lead Roff with 10 points, and Jordan Grinstead added six points (all in the second half) in the loss.

Both Roff teams now take an extended break before returning to action at the Pontotoc Conference Tournament Dec. 7 and 8. The Roff girls will meet Allen at 6:40 p.m. Dec. 8, and the Tigers — the top seed in the boys bracket — will face Wanette at 6:20 p.m. Dec. 7.

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