The Cumberland County Jets came out firing on all cylinders Tuesday night. CCHS jumped on top of visiting DeKalb County and never looked back as the Jets picked up a hard-fought important district basketball game, 56-49.
“This is a big confidence builder for these guys,” said Cumberland County Coach Taylor Denney after the game. “The guys worked really hard for that win. The boys played hard and we told them this was definitely a team win. Not everybody played in the game, but everyone has been competing hard in practice this week and that’s what got us here. They certainly earned this win tonight.”
The win improves Cumberland County’s record to 5-22 overall and 3-8 in district play. DeKalb County falls to 12-14 and 4-7. As of Tuesday night, Stone Memorial still leads the boys’ race at 11-0 in the district. Livingston Academy is 8-3 and Upperman is 7-4. White County is next 6-5 with Dekalb County at 4-7 and Cumberland County at 3-8. Macon County is 0-12.
The Jets opened the game matching the Tigers basket for basket and grabbed an 8-6 lead after the first period. Braeden Woodard and Jaxon Reed picked up their scoring in the second period and helped Cumberland County take a 24-19 advantage into halftime. CCHS led 36-28 after three quarters.
Woodard led the way for the Jets with 23 points. Reed had 18 and Braeden Leviner added seven. Nolen Carter scored three, while Ethan Dixon and Braylon Burnett scored two each. Sol Sitton had one.
Connor Close led DeKalb County with 26 points.
“DeKalb County has three or four really talented players, and we went into the game wanting to limit them the best we could. I thought we did that,” said Denney. “We wanted to be patient on offense and I thought we did that for the most part. We made our free throws at the end and that was really big for us.”
Cumberland County will host White County on Feb. 10 and Clarkrange on Feb. 11 to close out the regular season.
“Everyone seems to be finding their roles,” Denney said. “Woodard and Reed were the only two kids that had varsity experience [coming into the season]. I thought the other five guys in the rotation did a fantastic job of defending, taking care of the basketball, taking good shots and being ready to knock those shots down.”