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DANDRIDGE—Morristown East moved into a tie for first place in the District Two 4A race by dumping host Jefferson County, 62-48, Friday night.

The Hurricanes are now 2-1 in the league and knotted with Morristown West and Sevier County while Jefferson County is last at 9-3. East is now 11-10 for the season while the Patriots fell to 7-14.

East raced out to an early lead and was on top by as many as 19 three minutes into the second quarter.

Kyle Cloninger led three Hurricanes in double figures with 21 with 11 of those coming in the decisive first quarter.

Mason Smith chipped in 16 with seven coming in the fourth quarter after the Patriots rallied within eight points. Keagan Mink tossed in 15 with five in the fourth frame.

Talan Higgins topped the Patriots with 12 while Kohl Bonura had 11 and Cy Mincey 10.

East hit a hot 58.7 percent from the floor mainly because the ‘Canes took advantage of open back-cuts against the Patriots’ zone defense for a bunch of easy baskets.

Coach Alden Collins’ crew finished 27 of 46 and made 25 of 35 (71.4) from two-point. The Patriots hit 48.8 percent by making good on 20 of 41 with 4 of 12 from behind the arc.

“I thought we really executed our offense well, especially in the fourth quarter,” Collins said. “And the crazy thing is that they only saw that today in the walk-through. The execution was great. We got the layups that we wanted to out of it and the control we wanted to get out of it.

“Hopefully it’s something we can build on for our team,” he said. “But I was very proud of the guys. I thought Isaac (Greene) did a good job of stepping in and doing what he is supposed to do on offense and did a really good job on Higgins on the defensive end.”

“Mason hit some big baskets for us. He did a good job of finding good looks and then stepping up with confidence to hit them.”

Collins continued, “This was a big win for us. It’s always been a tough place to play. Moving into a tie in the district is huge. That means we can control our own destiny in the district.”

The start wasn’t the usual one for the Hurricanes as all four of the other starters scored before Cloninger did. However, when he got stated he scored nine points in the next 1:12 of play and the Hurricanes were off to a 17-7 lead.

Cloninger’s final bucket of the quarter gave East a 19-10 margin after one period and the ‘Canes erupted to score the first 10 of the second stanza.

Mink had two baskets in the spree with Smith, B. J. Hubbard and Cloninger scoring one each. Bonura scored for the Patriots but Cloninger hit a pair of technical free throws and Hubbard had another basket for a commanding 33-12 margin.

It was 40-18 at halftime but the home team started the third quarter with a bang. Ben Chandler scored five points and Higgins had three in a 10-2 run that got the Patriots within 42-31.

Smith hit a short jumper and Greene drove for a basket to shove the lead back to 46-34. Higgins hit a charity toss and Bonura cashed in a three-point play and the margin was down to 46-40.

Cloninger got the final bucket of the third but Bonura scored to open the fourth and it was an eight-point lead for East with 7:48 left in the game.

East went to it’s control offense and cashed in some easy baskets. Mink had two buckets and a pair of free throws and Cloninger hit two charity tosses for a 55-43 lead.

Jace Dobbins fired in a triple but Smith answered with a three and added two more baskets as East pulled away before Jefferson County scored the final six points.