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Covenant Feasts on Metro Christian
Thanksgiving may have been last Thursday, but the Covenant Academy Lions were hungry for more this week, devouring a highly overmatched Metro Christian Squad that suffered through its second blowout loss in Warren County this week. Covenant picked up a 65-12 victory to keep its perfect season going. Metro Christian also lost to Boyd on the road Tuesday.
The game got off to a slow start offensively as both teams struggled to get the ball in the basket. After about three minutes of play, Covenant upped the defensive intensity and started getting easy run out lay-ups. That tone continued through the first half as the Lions sprinted to a 33-7 halftime advantage.
"I really like the way we defended," said coach Ryan Smith. "You have to play pretty good defense without fouling to hold a team to 12 points. I thought they did a good job of communicating with each other.
"I gave them the responsibility of deciding who is guarding who and I thought we were engaged and played together offensively and defensively."
After the break the Lions took their defense to an even higher level and quickly stretched the advantage over 30 points. From there, coach Smith made sure everyone on the Covenant bench saw significant playing time.
Warren County's tallest basketball player, Casper Standefer, saw his first action of the season. Standefer, a towering figure at over 6-foot-8, netted eight points in a limited number of minutes.
After the game coach Smith praised his team's effort on defense and their overall intensity. Also, coach Smith was extremely pleased with his team's offensive execution. The Lions didn't bomb away in a blowout; They sliced and diced the Metro Christian defense to get easy buckets.
"I love that we scored 65 points and only shot three 3-pointers. That shows they are understanding the game better and realize that we need to get the best shot possible each time down the floor," said Smith.
He also said that his team will face a much stiffer challenge on Monday night as Daniel 1 Academy will come down from Cookeville, adding "I think we are getting better each game and I look forward to our game Monday."
Covenant was paced in scoring by Noah Mason with 23. Terry Hines contributed 11, while Standefer and David Netherton finished with eight. Rounding out the scoring for the Lions was Vansh Patel with six, Ethan Hillis with four, Elijah Smith with three and Ian Lyles with two.
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