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Unfortunately for East, the game went exactly as it appeared on paper as Kingsport Dobyns-Bennett, the Big East Conference (District 1-4A) leader thrashed the last place Hurricanes, 83-37, Wednesday night at Isenberg-Siler Gym.

The Indians fell behind early but roared back to take a 21-11 lead after the first quarter and rolled to their 21st win against six losses. They are now 5-0 in league action.

For East, it was the 12th straight loss and dropped the ‘Canes to 3-22 overall and 0-6 in the conference.

Elijah Thomas gunned in 25 to lead while T. J. Maxwell added 19 and Levi Webb 10.

The Hurricanes got 14 points from Jaxson Archer and a dozen from Chance Stokely.

Dobyns-Bennett fired through 33 of 62 for 53.2 percent and cashed in 14 of 26 three-point tries. The Hurricanes finished at 13 of 43 for 32.6 percent and made only 4 of 20 from behind the arc.

Webb raked down 10 rebounds and Garrison Jones grabbed seven and the Indians had a 34-31 rebounding edge. Stokely had six for East.

“I thought our guys did a really good job of finding the open man,” said Dobyns-Bennett coach Chris Poore. “We wanted to get in our pace early, attack and share the ball. We made unselfish plays over and over and I thought that made the big difference.”

Poore also said, “We couldn’t find Elijah enough. We wanted to get it in his hands.” Thomas was 9 of 11 from the floor and hit five three-pointers, as did Maxwell.

East coach Brice Cusick said, “I thought the boys competed tonight throughout the game. But DB just made it extremely tough with their pressure.

“We were in a hurry the whole game and we have to be the ones that dictate the speed of the game,” he said.

“But give credit to DB because they are a really great team that can shoot the lights out which they did tonight.”

A three by Archer gave East a 9-7 lead with 5:01 left in the initial stanza but the Indians’ Maxwell and Thomas hit three’s in a 10-point run that put the visitors in control for good.

The ‘Canes didn’t hit a basket the rest of the quarter and trailed by 10.

Dobyns-Bennett got eight from Maxwell and six each from Thomas and Carter Atwood in the second frame and were in command at 45-21 at halftime.

The Indians had an11-2 run in the third canto to lead 62-28 halfway through the period and increased their margin to 40 at 75-35 going into the fourth frame when the clock ran straight through.