CHESNEE, SC - The Chesnee Eagles picked up a pair of Region I-2A wins as both basketball teams won thrillers against the Liberty Red Devils at home on Friday night.
In the boys' game the Chesnee Eagles needed an additional four minutes of play to pull out the 65-61 win in overtime over the Liberty Red Devils. "This is a big win for as we hope to end this year on a strong note," said Chesnee head coach Andy Pitt. "We didn't have our best game, but we gutted out this win." The Red Devils came out hot as they made the first three baskets of the game, but the Eagles responded with a run of their own. The rest of the quarter was back and forth action until the final two minutes, when the Red Devils went on a 7-0 run. Jack Thompson's layup as time expired in the quarter helped Liberty build a 17-11 lead after the first quarter. Liberty opened the second quarter on another run, this one an 8-2 thanks to six points from Kendrick Jackson. The Eagles fired back with an 11-4 run of their own sparked by a pair of three-pointers from Noah Mvula to cut the Liberty lead to five going into the halftime break. One key stat in the game that helped Eagles pull out the win in the second half was holding Kendrick Jackson to just six points in the second half after he netted fourteen points in the first half and used his driving ability to help get better looks for teammates. "We switched to a zone defense after halftime," said Pitt. "I believe that helped us slowdown Jackson and helped us pull out the win." Chesnee opened the second half on an 8-2 run that saw Daniel Wease give the Eagles their first lead of the game at 32-31. Dawson Pruitt made a three-pointer in the final minute of the quarter to help the Eagles regain the led again at 43-42, but Dre Paul's responding basket gave the Red Devils the lead heading into what was expected to be the final frame. The fourth quarter was another back-and-forth affair that saw Noah Mvula sink another big pair of three pointers, including one with a minute and twenty seconds on the clock to put the Eagles up 57-55 The final sixty-nine seconds of regulation saw the Red Devils go to the line six times, but only be able to convert two of them to tie the game. The Eagles had a chance to take one final shot, but Carson Williamson 's half-court shot rimmed out to force overtime. Liberty's Seth Terry scored the first basket in overtime for either team, but the Eagles locked down defensively and didn't allow another made basket from the field in the overtime period. "We call getting three straight stops on defense a kill, and I told our team if we can get a kill in overtime we would win, and we did just that," said Pitt. Carson Williamson sank a three pointer for the Eagle's first basket of overtime, and it gave them the lead as they never trailed again from that point forward. Braylon Blanton hit a shot to put the Eagles up 63-61 near the midway point of the overtime period, before Daniel Wease sank a pair of free throws to clinch it with just under four seconds to play. "When I went to the line I just wanted to knock them down and pick up the win to help send our seniors out with some wins," said Wease. Noah Mvula led the Eagles with 19 points while KJ Proctor added 10 points of his own. Kendrick Jackson led all scorers with 20 points as Dre Paul also added nine points for the Red Devils. The Eagles will be back at home on Tuesday when they host Greenville Technical Charter on senior night. In the girls' game the Chesnee Eagles picked up a big Region I-2A win as they downed the Liberty Red Devils 51-46 on Friday night. "It feels great to pick up this win," said Chesnee senior Haley Edmonds. "We needed this win to have a chance at the playoffs and Coach Byers told us before the game to treat this as a playoff game and we did just that." The first quarter was highlighted by three different mini runs as the Eagles opened on a 6-2 run thanks to three pointers from Bixley Koon and Pearl Holloway. Anna Belle King and Trinity Garrett each sank a shot for the Red Devils to quickly tie the game at six all but the Eagles' Carlee Turner responded with a three pointer as they closed the quarter on a 5-2 run to take an 11-8 lead into the second quarter. The Eagles drained four three pointers in the second quarter to give them seven made in total for the first half. Pearl Holloway and Carlee Turner each drained their second of the half in the quarter and Haley Edmonds drained a pair in the second quarter to give the Eagles a 25-17 halftime lead. After draining seven three-pointers in the first half the Eagles only hir two in the second half as they started getting baskets from inside the arc. One player from the Eagles who took advantage of it was Pearl Holloway, as she scored 17 points in the second half with only one made three after she scored six points in the first half off of a pair of threes. "We were able to spread the ball around and find a good shot," said Holloway. "As we made shots from the outside it opened things up inside." The Red Devils opened the second half on a 6-0 run to cut the Eagle lead to two points, but a Jayla Dunn put back stopped the run. The Eagles responded with an 18-6 to take a 43-29 lead into the final frame. Holloway scored six of the Eagles eight points in the final frame to help fight off a Red Devil rally for the 51-46 win. Holloway led all scorers with 23 points, and Haley Edmonds added 11 points for the Eagles. Addison Roberts led the Red Devils with nine points while Savannah Welborn-Zellars, Anna Belle King, and Natalie Freeman etched added eight points each. Comments are closed.
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