The Athens Bulldogs have been a team dependent on scoring runs all season.
In Tuesday’s 63-44 home win over River Valley, Athens started off the game slowly, but it was the Bulldogs’ ability to control major parts of the game that helped them separate from the Raiders.
Despite a first quarter that saw the offense struggle and find a rhythm before senior Logan Maxfield scored 10 straight points, the Bulldogs were able to secure a win with the support of major runs in the middle of the contest.
Coach Mickey Cozart’s noticed this as a theme in the team’s play this season, but he wishes they were able to pull it off with more consistency.
“We make runs like that often,” Cozart said. “We just have to do it more and start stringing quarters together.”
The players also see the trend of not being able to have the runs compound together. Notably, they saw slow starts often this year. Usually, however, during the middle of the game, the team feels like a switch is flipped.
“We always come out at the beginning of the second or third quarter,” Maxfield said. “That’s our time to make a run.”
In Tuesday’s game, Maxfield proved to be right, as a 19-2 run in the second quarter and an 11-2 run to end the third demonstrated Cozart’s desire for the team to maintain their runs throughout the whole game rather than just a single quarter.
This game was also Athens’ second dominant performance built on runs against the Raiders this season.
When these two teams first met this season, the Bulldogs skipped the slow start and got straight to the high-paced offense, scoring 12 straight points to open the game. At one point in the first half, Athens was on a 25-2 run.
Cozart recognizes the importance of starts like in the first River Valley game, as it allows the Bulldogs to decide the pace of the game.
“We need to start out quick,” Cozart said. “We want to set the tone and not have the tone set on us.”
Runs also proved to be essential Tuesday when it came to squashing any momentum the Raiders had throughout the game.
The 11-2 stretch for Athens (9-3, 7-0 Tri-Valley Conference) came directly after River Valley (2-10, 0-7 TVC) scored eight unanswered points to start the third quarter. After the Bulldogs’ third-quarter run, however, the Raiders were stifled for the rest of the game.
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