Basketball: Corner beats Hayden 78-40, gives Conner 450th win; Wildcat girls roll

Head coach Billy Conner got his 450th win in his 22-year career Friday, as his Yellow Jacket boys gave him the gift with a 78-40 win over Hayden in the season opener for both teams.

Corner opened the game on an 8-0 run, then added another 10-0 run to end the first quarter with a 24-6 lead.

The Wildcats made a run to start the second quarter, and cut the lead to eight with just over four minutes to go in the half. But then the Jackets stretched the lead back out carry a 40-26 lead into halftime.

Corner’s Austin Sanford led all scorers with 19 points, and Blake Byrd added 17. Hayden’s leading scorer was Duncan Parker with 9.

Girls — Hayden 54, Corner 28: The Wildcats won their first game in the post-Krista Strickland era, and did so without last year’s second-leading scorer Grayson Taylor, who missed the game due to a family illness.

Corner’s Carrisa Reeves hit a 3-pointer to open the game and give the Jackets the lead, but Hayden ran off eight unanswered points. The Cats then pulled out to a 20-10 lead with just two and a half minutes left in the first half.

Hayden held Corner scoreless for the first four minutes of the third quarter to go up 33-19. They later went on a 17-0 run spanning the last part of the third and the first part of the fourth quarters.

Eighth-grader Evin Bibb led all scorers with 16 for the Wildcats, freshman Sharley Miller added 15 and junior Katie Parr had a double-double with 13 points and 19 rebounds. Avery Wakefield paced the Yellow Jackets with points, and Carrisa Reeves finished with six.