B

Morristown West’s boys are co-champions of the Big East Conference (District 1-4A) after smacking cross-town rival East, 72-48, Friday night at Isenberg-Siler Gym.

It was the seventh win in the district against a single loss and gives Coach Joe Dobyns’ club a tie for the title with Kingsport Dobyns-Bennett. West will be the top seed in the upcoming district tournament.

The Trojans shot a hot 60 percent from the floor in posting their fifth straight win in the city championship series and are now 18-10 for the season.

East suffered its 14th straight loss and fell to 3-24 for the season and finished at 0-8 in the conference. The Hurricanes will play at West Ridge in a play-in game for the district tournament. The winner of that game will face West in the tournament.

The other first-round boys’ games will see Dobyns-Bennett facing Johnson City Science Hill.

East put up quite a battle through the most part of three quarters before West pulled away on Friday.

Will DesGroseilliers gunned in 25 points to lead the Trojans. He was able to take the ball to the basket about any time he wanted and scored on a number of driving shots. Jake Bunch was the only other player in double figures with a dozen, while Julian Sexton added nine and Andy Fowler eight.

Aaron Carpenter scored 18 for the Hurricanes with Jaxson Archer chipping in nine.

With DesGroseilliers hitting 12 of 15 shots, the Trojans poured through 30 of 60 field goal attempts. They hit three of nine three-point tries and had a commanding 36-18 rebounding edge as DesGroseilliers grabbed 11.

The Hurricanes were 19 of 41 for 46.3 percent and cashed in on 5 of 13 from behind the arc.

West coach Joe Dobyns said, “I was proud of the way the guys came out and did the things we knew we had to do to win this game.

“Rivalry games are always tough, and this was no exception,” he added. “We knew they would play us tough on their senior night, and they certainly did that.”

“But I thought we did a good job of executing, and we got pretty good shots throughout the game and made a lot of them,” Dobyns continued. “Will had another good game for us but it seems he always does. He took the ball to the basket and either scored or kicked it to an open man.

“I also thought we did a good job on defense. East stayed with us until late in that third quarter and then we were able to build our lead into a safer margin.”

The coach went on to say, “No doubt this is a huge win for us. It locks us into the region tournament and gives us the best seed in the district. Having a good finish in the district is going to be very big because there are some good teams in the other district.”

East’s Brice Cusick remarked, “I thought the boys came out strong and answered a lot of the shots that West threw our way.

“I thought we really picked up our defense in the second quarter, but help-side defense was a big problem in the second half and really hurt us.”

Cusick closed, “We have to be more consistent on defense and have to convert some of the easy looks we missed in the second half.”

DesGroseilliers got the Trojans started with a bang as he scored two baskets and passed to Bunch for a layup in the first 2:35 of the game to give the visitors a 6-3 lead after Brayden Smith knocked down a three for the Hurricanes.

Jamere Williams and Joey Mihalko had back-to-back baskets to stretch the lead to 14-8 and West led 18-13 at the first rest stop.

East had a 9-7 scoring advantage in the second stanza and trailed by just 25-22 at halftime, which was a vast improvement from their first meeting with the Trojans when they were behind 41-15 at intermission.

However, the Trojans got their offense going in the final two quarters when they scored 20 and 27 to pull steadily away.

The ‘Canes were within 35-30 with 2:49 left in the third before the Trojans gunned in 10 points and led 45-33 at the last break. DesGroseilliers had 10 in the third for West and Carpenter scored half as many for East.

It was 47-37 when the Trojans put the game away with an 11-0 run and coasted to the win as Dobyns cleared his bench in the final stages.