Chesnee's huge second half was not enough to overcome Southside as the Eagles fell 71-65 on the road Tuesday night. Southside jumped out to a 22-14 lead after the first quarter of play behind a strong seven points from their center RJ Campbell but Chesnee's Dez Tate helped keep the Eagles in the game with ten first quarter points. A pair of free throws with three minutes left in the first quarter pushed Tate over the 1,000 point mark for his career. "Hitting the 1,000 point mark is big for any high school player,” said Chesnee head coach Andy Pitt. “I'm just pleased we got to see him accomplish this milestone.” Southside continued their strong play into the second quarter as they opened the quarter on a 14-0 run to give them a nineteen point lead with six minutes left in the half. Chesnee came out firing to open the second half to pull within ten points midway through the third quarter behind a pair of three pointers from Alijah Means. Chesnee continued trying to battle back in the fourth quarter including a 13-0 run that gave the Eagles the lead with two minutes left. Unfortunately for the Eagles, RJ Campbell responded with a layup to give the Tigers the lead back and Southside held on for the 71-65 win. Chesnee Head Coach Andy Pitt was pleased with how his team played in the second half outscoring the Tigers 37-24. "I told the guys after the game we can't get down by twenty points because it takes a lot of energy to come back,” said Coach Pitt. "To see us fight back was big for us." Dez Tate had a big night for the Eagles as he finished with a game high twenty-six points while Alijah Means and Matthew Lawter both finished in double figures as Means poured in twenty-one points and Lawter added ten points. RJ Anderson finished with twenty-five points for the Tigers, and Jalon Calhoun added thirteen points. Chesnee travels to Broome on Friday in a key region game for both teams. Lady Eagles Fall to SouthsideThe Southside Lady Tigers used a huge second quarter to down the Chesnee Lady Eagles 52-37
Sierra Bowen got the game started off for the Eagles as she made a three pointer to open the scoring but eight points from Anaya Muhammad helped Southside to a 15-11 lead after the first quarter. A 17-1 run to close out the first and open the second quarter by the Lady Tigers helped them open up a 28-13 halftime lead. Chesnee battled back in the third quarter but were unable to get the Southside lead under ten. Bowen hit two beautiful three pointers for the Eagles and strong defense from Kymiah Blair helped limit Southside star Anaya Muhammad to just three points in the quarter all from the free throw line. Chesnee tried to make a run in the fourth quarter but wasn’t able to overcome the early deficit to the Tigers. “We made some mistakes and got down in the first half,” said Chesnee head coach Carey Burns. “It was nice to see the girls come out though and play hard in the second half.” Sierra Bowen led the Lady Eagles with twelve points while Jessa Beech also finished in double figures for the Lady Eagles with ten points. Chesnee used a big first half and some solid defense down the stretch to hold off Carolina for a 60-56 win in a key region contest for the Eagles. "I'm glad we were able to pull off this win as a team, and move on in region," said Chesnee senior Ahmad Smith. After Carolina jumped out to a quick lead Chesnee was able to quickly respond with a 7-0 run, with all seven points being scored by Alijah Means. Chesnee's Dez Tate followed that up with five points of his own as the Eagles finished the quarter on a 12-1 run for a 12-5 lead after the first quarter of play. Chesnee got a big second quarter from Smith as he scored nine of his fifteen points in the second quarter including seven during Chesnee's 13-0 run in the middle of the quarter. Chesnee led 34-20 at halftime behind a combined 29 first half points from the trio of Smith, Tate, and Means. Chesnee was able to make several key stops defensively in the first half by drawing charges including several by Malik Busby "Having guys like Matthew Lawter, Malik Busby, and KJ Valentine being able to step in and take charges is big." Coach Pitt said. "Being able to step in and take charges is all mental." Carolina came out in the second half giving Chesnee their best shot as the Trojans tried to get back into the game. The Trojans used a 14-4 run in the third quarter to pull them within eight points with just over three minutes left in the quarter. Tate stepped up for the Eagles to close out the third quarter with seven of Chesnee's last nine points in the quarter and gave the Eagles a 49-39 lead heading into the fourth. The Trojans went on another run to open the fourth quarter to pull them with three points behind a Da'Marcus Williams three pointer with 4:15 left but clutch free throws down the stretch from Tate and Smith allowed the Eagles to seal a big region win as the Eagles start the second half of region play. "We stayed composed and we stayed calm throughout the game. I think that really helped us out tonight," said Smith on what helped Chesnee fight off the Trojans second half rally. Tate finished with a team high 26 points and grabbed eight rebounds while Ahmad Smith added fifteen points for the Eagles. Matthew Lawter and Alijah Means had big nights on the glass for the Eagles as Means finished with thirteen rebounds and seven points while Lawter finished with ten rebounds and four points. Chesnee sophomore K'Jymie Valentine also added another nine rebounds for the Eagles on Friday night. Chesnee will be back in action on Tuesday as they travel to Southside. Lady Eagles Victorious On Night Their Coach Is Honored The Chesnee Lady Eagles used a big second half to pull away from the Carolina Lady Trojans for a 57-38 win in a key region win on the night Chesnee retired head coach Carey Burns' number from her time as a member of the Chesnee basketball team.
"I got on to the girls a little at halftime because I felt we let them play their game especially in the second quarter," Chesnee Head Coach Carey Burns said/ "I was proud of how we came out in the third quarter and I felt like we did what we needed to do to turn the game around." Sierra Bowen got the scoring started for the Lady Eagles with a three pointer on her first shot of the game and the Lady Eagles got contributions from Paige Scruggs, Logan Lawter, and Whitney Haulbrooks as they jumped out to 10-4 lead after one quarter of play. The Lady Trojan were able to bounce back at the start of the second quarter as they used a 10-2 run to open the quarter to give them a 14-12 lead with just over five minutes left in the half. The Lady Eagles would use back to back baskets from Sierra Bowen to regain the lead. Bowen's fourteen first half points helped the Lady Eagles to a 24-22 halftime lead with Haulbrooks making a shot with thirty seconds left in the half to put the Lady Eagles in front for good. Abbey Ray and Jessa Beech led the Eagles out of the halftime break by scoring ten of Chesnee's fourteen points in the third quarter. Paige Scruggs also scored four of her seven points in the quarter as the Eagles outscored the Trojans 14-5 in the quarter to give them a 38-27 lead. Ray continued her strong play in the fourth quarter as she scored Chesnee's first six points of the quarter. The Lady Eagles used some clutch free throws from Bowen and baskets from Kymiah Blair and Jameka Evans to end any hope Carolina had of making a comeback. Sierra Bowen finished with a team high seventeen points and Abbey Ray collected a double-double with twelve points and eleven rebounds. On the night Chesnee retired their coach's number twenty-four the current holder of that number Whitney Haulbrooks had one her best games of the season as she finished with nine points and four rebounds. Hard work was a common phrase used on Friday night to describe the two legends of Chesnee Eagles basketball as both Deion Holmes and Carey Swofford Burns had their jerseys retired in front of lots of family, friends, and Eagles fans. "A lot of hard work went into this," said Carey Burns. "It wasn't just hard work by me but by the people who loved me and kept me accountable and on the right track." Chesnee men's basketball coach Andy Pitt says he still tells his team today about the effort and hard work that lead to Holmes becoming a Chesnee legend. "When a lot of people were still sleeping in their beds Deion was here putting up shots," said Coach Pitt. "He had deals with the janitors to be able to get in here early and there were many nights that I had to run him out of the gym." Holmes, a current player for USC Upstate just moved into the top ten all-time scoring list for the Spartans, had his former number eleven jersey retired on Friday night with many current and former teammates in attendance. The honor is just another significant award from an amazing high school career as Holmes finished his high school career as the second all-time leading scorer in the South Carolina High School League history with 3,082 points while also recording 1,246 rebounds. On Friday night Chesnee was facing Carolina High School, a team that Holmes remembers well because he set the school's single game scoring record of 61 points against Carolina back in 2014. "People always ask me what my game high and I tell them 61 and I remember Carolina," said Holmes. "The timing for this honor couldn't be any better." Holmes, who was the AA player of the year in his junior and senior years, started four years for the Eagles where he was named All-Region, All-State, and All-Area all four years. He was also nominated as a McDonald's All-American his senior season, a season that saw him score 1,055 points and set a SCHSL record as he hit twenty-seven free throws in one game. The other Chesnee legend honored on Friday night was current girls basketball coach Carey Burns who had her number twenty-four retired for the Eagles. Burns was a member of the Eagles varsity basketball team for six years and holds both the school's scoring record (2,083 points) and rebounds record (1,576 rebounds). "We knew going into the game Carey was going to play hard for you from the tipoff to the sound of the horn," said former Chesnee girls basketball coach Bill Parris. "With her to put up the numbers she did against the competition we were playing against tells you how good of a player she was." In her six years of varsity basketball Burns started five of those years while making All-Region in each of those years. Burns also was named All-State in her sophomore, junior, and senior seasons. Holmes and Burns both averaged a double-double for their careers as Burns averaged sixteen points and twelve rebounds in her career as an Eagle and Holmes averaged twenty-five points and ten rebounds in his career. In the first minute of the game Chesnee got quick buckets from Dez Tate and Alijah Means to get the Eagles off to a fast start in route to a 75-66 victory over Chapman on Friday night. The Eagles got great performances from both Tate and Means as they both combined to score seventeen out of the Eagle's twenty first quarter points. A part of their first quarter performance included an 11-0 run that took the Eagles from down four to leading by seven. Chapman's Mikele Colasurdo would follow the Chesnee run with a 9-0 run of his own on three consecutive three pointers to give Chapman the lead with under three minutes left in the quarter. Despite the Colasurdo run a Usir Barnes free throw with twenty-four seconds left would give the Eagles a 20-19 lead after one quarter. The second quarter saw both teams exchange the lead early but an 8-1 Chapman run in the middle of the quarter gave them a 31-25 lead that would become a 36-30 halftime lead for the Panthers. The Eagles would start the second half with a 5-0 run to cut Chapman's lead to one and a Dez Tate basket with just over four minutes left in the third quarter gave the Eagles the lead back for good. Coach Andy Pitt was pleased with his team's effort to start each half. "We came out with a good burst in the beginning,” said Chesnee head coach Andy Pitt. “We came out in the third quarter and took advantage of our opportunities" The Eagles used clutch free throw shooting in the fourth quarter to help secure the win as the Eagles went 11-14 from the line including an eight of ten effort from Dez Tate. Tate finished with a game high 28 points while Means finished with 26 points. The Eagles also got nice nights from K'Jymie Valentine who finished with seven points and Ahmad Smith who added six points. Usir Barnes also added five points off the bench for Chesnee. Mikele Colasurdo led the Panthers with 22 points while Banks Atkins added fourteen points and Paul Mitchell added nine points of his own. Coach Pitt was pleased with duo of Means and Tate but viewed the win as a total team win. "The guys were ready to play tonight,” said Coach Pitt. “I thought it was a total team effort and I’m proud of how we closed out the third quarter with the lead and finished out the rest of the game.” The Eagles will be back in action on Monday in the Visit York County MLL Showcase against Clover. Next Friday the Eagles will host Carolina in a key region matchup. Lady Eagles Fall to PanthersThe Chapman Lady Panthers downed the Chesnee Lady Eagles 53-28 as the Lady Eagles fell to 2-2 in region play.
Chapman jumped out to an early 11-4 lead behind two three pointers from Stelly Musser but two free throws from Paige Scruggs and a basket by Jameka Evans cut the Panthers lead to 11-8 after one quarter of play. Chapman used a 14-4 run in the early portions of the second quarter to help them build a 32-19 halftime lead behind combined 17 first half points from Ke'Asia Anderson and Stelly Musser. A highlight of the first half for the Lady Eagles was Sierra Bowen's half court buzzer beater to end the half. Ke'Asia Anderson scored six of Chapman's eight points in the third quarter as the Eagles clamped down defensively but Chapman's defense limited Chesnee to four points all from Abbey Ray to extend the Lady Panthers lead to 40-23 after the third quarter. Sierra Bowen hit her second three pointer of the night in the fourth quarter but the Lady Eagles couldn't develop a run to pull back into the game. Chesnee Head Coach Carey Burns was disappointed with the result but pleased with how her team has played the first time through region play. “It's tough when you get good looks but the shots don't fall,” said Coach Burns. “While this loss is disappointing I'm pleased with going 2-2 in the first half of region play. We still have a chance at potentially earning a home playoff game." Abbey Ray lead the Lady Eagles with ten points, Sierra Bowen added eight points while Paige Scruggs added six points. Ke'Asia Anderson and Stelly Musser both finished in double figures for the Lady Panthers as Anderson had 15 points and Musser added 11 points. The Chesnee Eagles used a 9-2 run at the start of the fourth quarter to grab a 64-59 victory over Broome in a key region matchup on Tuesday night. "That run at the start of the fourth quarter we wanted to hit them hard to start the quarter," said Chesnee head coach Andy Pitt. "We wanted to give ourselves some breathing room and while we made a few mistakes we got to work on defense and made some stops when we needed to." Chesnee started the game with a steal of a Broome pass by senior Dez Tate who went on to dunk the ball and set the tone for the Eagles early in the game. Not to be outdone in the first quarter Broome's Khalil Stringer kept the Centurions right in the game scoring eight first quarter points to bring the game to a 15-15 tie at the end of the first quarter. In the second quarter the Eagles got a nice contribution from sophomore Nyquille O"Fair who scored eight points while also grabbing four rebounds and a steal. The Eagles were set to take a 28-25 lead into halftime before senior Nick Case hit a half court shot at the buzzer for the Centurions tying the game 28-28 at halftime. The goal for the Eagles in the third quarter was to come out strong and make their hard work in practice pay off. "I told our guys that we needed to come out and hit them hard to start the second half," said Coach Pitt. "I told them it was time for all our hard work to pay off and collect our paycheck." The Eagles got huge performances from Tate and sophomore Alijah Means in the second half as both players waited until the second half to have their best performances of the night. Means led the Eagles in points on Tuesday night as he scored seventeen of his twenty points in the second half. Tate scored eighteen points for the Eagles and was key down the stretch as he went seven of eight from the free throw line in the fourth quarter. "I just had 'win the game' on my mind as I stepped up to the line late their in the fourth quarter," said Chesnee senior Dez Tate. "It's like coach always says, it was payday and it was time for us to collect our check." With the victory Chesnee improves to 1-2 in region with a very important matchup at Chapman on Friday night to close out the first half of region play for the Eagles. Lady Eagles Collect Big Region Win on Tuesday The Chesnee Lady Eagles collected a big region win on Tuesday night as they used a thirteen point fourth quarter and some key rebounds late to collect their first region win with a 45-38 victory over Broome.
Chesnee and Broome battled to an 11-11 tie at the end of the first quarter as Hailey Wells led Broome with six points and Sierra Bowen scored seven of her career high twenty-four points in the first quarter. The Eagles would grab the halftime lead as they outscored Broome 11-7 in the second quarter to lead 22-18 at halftime. The Centurions came out in the third quarter and were able to hold the Eagles to six points in the quarter and claim a 32-28 lead at the end of the quarter. In the fourth quarter though the Eagles reclaimed their lead and only allowed the Centurions to score six points in the final quarter while getting twelve points from senior Sierra Bowen who went six for six from the free throw line in the fourth quarter. "Sierra had a career high in scoring tonight and we couldn't be more happy for her," said Chesnee head coach Carey Burns. "She has been a steady leader for us all year. She doesn't get too excited and helps our team stay calm in those key situations." The Eagles also got key contributions in the post as they had two players account for thirty rebounds on Tuesday night. Those contributions came from junior Abbey Ray who fell one point shy of a double-double with nine points and twelve rebounds and sophomore Jessa Beach who scored three points and collected eighteen rebounds. "We got big play from Jessa Beach and Abbey Ray tonight," said Coach Burns. "We controlled the boards and I feel like that was what led us to victory tonight." The Eagles will travel to rival Chapman on Friday night in another big region matchup. "We have Chapman on Friday night and this was a big win heading into that game," said Coach Burns. "I've told the girls from here on out we have to play with all we got to pickup the victories." The Chesnee Eagles fell to the Southside Tigers by a score of 82-56 in a Region 2-3A contest. Southside used big runs to close out the first and second quarters to give the Tigers 32-17 halftime lead and that proved too much for the Eagles to overcome. Chesnee's Dez Tate tried bringing the Eagles back in the second half as he scored fourteen of his team high twenty points in the second half including an impressive dunk in the fourth quarter over a Tiger defender. Ahmad Smith and Alijah Means also had solid nights as Smith added nine points and Means added eight points. Southside's RJ Campbell had an impressive first quarter as he scored thirteen points in the quarter but was limited the rest of the game due to foul trouble. Chesnee Head Coach Andy Pitt was pleased with his team's effort against the defending 3A State Champions. "I was pleased with how we played especially in the first half, unfortunately we just didn't get the shots to fall" Coach Pitt said The Eagles return to action on Tuesday as they host the Broome Centurions in a key Region 2-3A matchup. The Centurions defeated Chapman on Friday night. Girl's Game The Southside Lady Tigers downed the Chesnee Lady Eagles 53-35 behind a twenty-eight point performance from Jordan Thompson.
Chesnee got an impressive performance of their own from Abbey Ray who scored thirteen points and grabbed fifteen rebounds. Chesnee Head Coach Carey Burns was pleased with Ray's play saying, "her getting offensive rebounds is big for us, unfortunately tonight we didn't have a lot of good shots fall for us." The key moment in the game was with just under six minutes to go in the first half the Lady Tigers went on an 11-0 run to extend their lead to fifteen with 2:19 left in the half and the Lady Eagles were not able to overcome it. Anaya Muhammad also had a big night for the Lady Tigers as she finished with eighteen points. Sierra Bowen had a nice night for the Lady Eagles as she finished with ten points while Jessa Beach had a solid night off the bench with seven points. Coach Burns was pleased with Beach's play off the bench saying, "She is a great athlete who is continuing to grow." |
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