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Dobyns-Bennett has ended Morristown East’s basketball season for the fifth consecutive season in the Region 1-4A Tournament. This time the defending 4A state champion Indians captured a 63-50 triumph Saturday night at Isenburg-Siler Gym in a battle of the district one and two regular season champions.

Brady Stump led a balanced Dobyns-Bennett attack with 21 points with most of them coming on drives to the basket. Charlie McHugh added 12 and Jonavan Gillespie 11 for the Indians. Dante Oliver chipped in nine and Jace Potts eight as the Indians improved to 19-11 for the season.

The winners move on to face Morristown West Tuesday night in the region semifinals at the Tribe Athletic Complex. West upset West Ridge on Saturday.

As usual, Kyle Cloninger led the Hurricanes, pouring in 28 points. But he didn’t get much scoring help as no other East player had more than six as the ‘Canes ended the season at 17-15.

Cloninger’s total put him over the 1,500 mark for his career as he now has 1,525. He scored 757 points this season, the fourth highest in East history, in averaging 24.4.

The Indians grabbed an early 11-2 lead before East rallied to grab a 14-13 advantage early in the second stanza.

But that was it for the ‘Canes as the visitors ran off an 11-3 spurt to grab a lead they never gave up the rest of the way.

Dobyns-Bennett coach Chris Poore was pleased with the effort of his team. “I thought we played really well. The guys have worked hard since losing in the district and came out and did what we needed to do tonight.

“I thought everybody played well to their role,” he said. “Dante did a good job on Cloninger even though he scored well for them. But we shut the other down and did a good job of helping out. Charlie did a great job for us on the boards and Brady just put us on his back. He scored the ball and took advantage of a mismatch defensively.”

He added, “All of these guys were focused and it seemed like they want to keep playing. I was proud to coach them tonight.”

East coach Alden Collins summed things up pretty simply. “We didn’t shoot the ball well and we couldn’t stop Stump from taking the ball to the basket.

“We knew we had to play well to have a chance to win,” Collins said. “Kyle scored for us but nobody else did anything offensively. He passed the ball well but we didn’t take advantage of our opportunities.”

East actually didn’t shoot the ball that badly around the basket but attempted only 15 two-point shots in the entire four quarters. The ‘Canes hit seven of those and made but 10 of 31 behind the arc to finish at 36.9 percent.

The Indians, on the other hand, made 23 of 42 for 54.7 percent and finished 7 of 16 behind the arc.

Dobyns-Bennett had a 29-24 rebounding edge as Oliver grabbed seven and McHugh six. Cloninger topped East, pulling down eight stray shots.

Cloninger hit the game’s first basket before Gillespie tied it and Stump drained a triple for the Indians. Gillespie scored again and hit a free throw as did Oliver before a driving layup by Stump ended the 11-point run.

Billy Hubbard knocked in a three for East before Stump scored his seventh point of the quarter to make it 13-5. Cloninger hit a bucket at the buzzer to cut the margin to six.

The ‘Canes got three from Mason Smith before back-to-back buckets by Cloninger put East in front 14-13 with 6:53 left in the half.

However, Oliver bagged a three and McHugh hit another one and the Indians led by five. Cloninger fired in a triple but Oliver made another one and McHugh grabbed a rebound and scored to put the visitors up by seven with 2:35 left in the half.

Keegan Mink hit a free throw and Cloninger made two charity tossed to get East within 26-20 at intermission.

Stump scored five as Dobyns-Bennett opened the third quarter with a 7-3 run to up their lead to 10. Smith’s three got East within 36-29 but the Indians closed the quarter on an 8-3 run to lead by 44-32 going into the final frame.

East got it all the way down to 51-42 on a bucket by Cloninger with 3:17 left and had the ball twice only to miss three-point attempts.

The Indians finished it off at the free throw line, making 6 of 8 over the final 2:34. East got the rebound on both misses but couldn‘t cash in on the other end.

Cloninger’s triple was the final points for the Hurricanes with 39 seconds left but Potts hit two free throws and a snowbird layup in the final 30 seconds.