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Following Friday night’s Morristown East-Morristown West game, if you had looked up clutch in the dictionary you might have found Cory Carpenter’s picture.

Coming off the bench for East, Carpenter made just three shots in Friday’s game. However, all three couldn’t have come at a better time.

After a three in the first quarter, Carpenter threw in a trey at the buzzer to end the third quarter to give East a 10-point lead. Then, with West challenging one final time, Carpenter hit his third three of the game with two minutes to go. That shot sealed the deal as East took home a 50-37 victory.

“Great game and great confidence to be able to hit those shots,” Morristown East coach Alden Collins said about Carpenter. “I felt like he found a lot of confidence with his defensive side of the ball. He got the Bereket (Evans) assignment, and I thought he did a great job of keeping him in front of him. He’s a guy that feels a lot of trust from his teammates. Couldn’t happen to a better kid. He works on his own and always works in the gym with us. Just really cool for a kid like Cory to do that.”

The win didn’t come without some nervy moments for East as they broke out to an early lead, only to see West come back and take a lead late in the second quarter. West also stole the lead from East midway through the third quarter.

However, both times East seemed unfazed and took the lead right back.

“I think we’re developing some poise,” Collins said. “Kyle has obviously been here and they’ll follow behind Kyle (Cloninger). But a lot of guys have found comfortable roles and have closed out games and made winning plays. That’s encouraging because ultimately we’ll need all these guys down the stretch to have the success that we think we can have.”

It was a struggle from the start for Morristown West as they went four minutes before scoring their first points of the game. Then, after getting a 10-point lead down to five early in the fourth quarter, the Trojans went the final six minutes without a point.

“First, just congratulations to Morristown East as they picked up the No. 1 seed in the district,” Dobyns said. “They came in here and earned the victory and that so congrats to them. Offensively, we struggled. Holding that team to 50 points, I can live with that. I thought we did a pretty decent job defensively. Offensively, they’re pressure bothered us and gave us fits. We worked on that this week, but it’s just different when you go live. They just didn’t let us get into anything.”

For Morristown East, Kyle Cloninger led the way with 18 points while Carpenter and Mason Smith each scored nine points. Other scorers for East were Keagon Mink with seven, Isaac Greene with three and BJ Hubbard with four.

Early in the season for East, it was Cloninger scoring the majority of the teams points with other chipping in a basket here and there. Now, with almost a full regular season under their belts, Cloninger is still getting his points but his teammates are stepping up to provide a balanced attack for the ‘Canes.

For Collins, he credits that balanced attack to guys just learning what it takes to compete on the varsity level.

“Guys are just getting comfortable in their roles and shooting shots on this level,” Collins said. “These kids having been coming to our games since I have been at East and they were in fourth and fifth grade. Maybe the big shining moment was with them early in the year, but they’re getting more comfortable and hopefully as the season goes, they continue to blossom and do the things that we know they’re capable of doing.”

On the Morristown West side, Rylin King and Berekt Evans each scored eight points while Jalen McCullough had seven points. Other scorers for West were Tory House with six points, Ty Steisslinger with six points and Alban Oruglica with two points.

Things started quick for East as Cloninger hit back-to-back 3-pointers. House got West on the board four minutes in, but back-to-back three’s by Carpenter and Smith made it 12-2. The two teams traded baskets in the final minute and it was 14-4 after one.

In the second, West tried to play back into it as Steisslinger scored four straight to open things up. Greene answered for East with a three to make it 17-8, but West’s offense finally woke up as they went on a 11-0 run to take a 19-17 lead. McCullough and King had four points each on the run while Evans hit a 3-pointer.

“We got some defensive stops and got out in transition,” Dobyns said about the run. “That’s where we do well. We just got some stops and led to baskets. But credit to East, they did a great job taking it back.”

It was Smith that broke the drought for East and gave them the lead back with a 3-pointer. Mink followed that up with a 3-point play that made it 23-19. The teams traded buckets from there with East leading 28-23 at the break.

East started the third with a free throw by Cloninger, but West got baskets from House and King and free throws from Evans to tie the game at 29. Mink scored to give East the lead back, but Evans drilled another trey to put West up by one.

However, once again East answered with the final 11 points of the quarter to lead 42-32. Cloninger and Hubbard each had four points during the run with Carpenter drilling a three in the corner at the buzzer.

In the fourth, West came out and scored the first five points to make it 42-37, but a basket by McCullough with 6:25 left would be the final time West scored. After a Cloninger free throw got the lead to six, Carpenter drilled yet another 3-pointer with two minutes to go that got the lead to nine. That was enough as two Cloninger baskets late capped off the win.

With the win, Morristown East improved to 4-1 in the district and locked up the No. 1 seed in the district tournament.

The ‘Canes have just one district game remaining, hosting Jeff County on Friday night. While the No. 1 seed is already locked up, East wants to end things strong and have momentum going into postseason play.

“It’s definitely a game where we want to build momentum,” Collins said. “Jeff County, at the moment, is the matchup we would see in the district tournament, so we need to make sure we play a good game and a well executed game. Seeding is going to play a lot, especially going into the region tournament. We’ve done what we needed to do in the regular season to set us up in the district tournament, but there’s still one left on the schedule so we need to handle that and be playing our best basketball in the district tournament.”

For West, they fell to 2-3 in the district with the loss. The Trojans are tied for the second seed with Sevier County. The two teams will play at Sevier County on Friday at 7:30 p.m.

“The district tournament is at Sevier County, so we want to go up there and play well,” Dobyns said. “Sevier County is a good basketball team, they came here and beat us on our floor so we know it’s going to be a challenge. But it’s just something we’ve got to do.”