Dockery, press lead East to win in opener

BATAVIA -- The "Doc" was in the house, and the result was some bad medicine for St. Joseph.

The Chargers had to swallow a 67-55 loss to East Aurora (14-8) in the Batavia Night of Hoops opener Saturday after Andrew Dockery and friends unleashed a fullcourt press to start the second half that led to a 12-2 run to give the Tomcats a comfortable lead they would never relinquish.

Dockery, a 6-foot-5 junior had two of his three steals in that span then added two exclamation points late in the game.

First, he blocked a shot by St. Joe's Diamond Taylor (game-high 18 points) with 2:45 remaining to preserve a seven-point margin.

"I was just hustling back on defense," he said.

With just over a minute remaining on a break started by a Jamar Shepard steal, he fed William Brown, who gave the ball back for a thunderous Dockery dunk that made it 65-53 and put to rest any doubts.

"I had a chance (for a dunk) earlier in the game and had to make up for it," said Dockery, who finished with eight points and eight rebounds and thanked his doctor for some good medicine.

"He had a migraine headache before the game but fought through it," said coach Wendell Jeffries, pleased the way his team came out focused and played one of their best games of the season.

After laying back in a 3-2 zone through much of the first half, Jeffries opened the second in a 1-2-2 fullcourt press with a lineup that featured all three of his "bigs," Dockery, 6-4 Brown and 6-4 sophomore Tramell Weathersby, joined by Shepard and Jamario Taylor. The group came up big as the Chargers looked befuddled for much of the quarter.

"We sat back in the first half and stayed in it by hitting some open shots," said Jeffries. "Then we wanted to turn it up a little bit. I wasn't planning to stay with it, but it worked so well, I did."

East outscored the Chargers (16-6) 35-22 over the final 16 minutes, paced by Weathersby, who had 13 of his team-high 15 points in the second half.

Four Tomcats reached double figures with Shepard adding 14, Brown 11 and Ryan Hayden 10.

"We felt like it was a big game and we had to get it right," said Weathersby, who also had a game-high 11 rebounds. "Everybody has been real focused all week."

Batavia Night of Hoops: East Aurora 67, St. Joseph 55