The Chesnee Eagles used a big run to down the Brashier Middle College Bengals 57-46 on Friday night in their season home opener. "We found a way to win it," said Chesnee head coach Andy Pitt. "We made our free throws and Matthew Lawter made a heck of a play on a loose ball to make a layup. That helped put us far enough ahead to pull out the win." The Bengal's Torrin Campbell scored the first basket of the game but the first quarter ended knotted up at five as KJ Valentine had a nice put back with just over a minute left in the quarter to tie the game. Brashier started the second quarter on a 7-4 run capped off by a Florian Parry runner down the lane. Chesnee responded with a three from Alijah Means that sparked an impressive 19-0 Chesnee run and held the Bengals without a point for 9:20 of game action. When the Bengals finally scored with 4:15 left in the third quarter Chesnee held a 28-14 lead. "A lot of that had to do with how we were playing on the defensive end," said Pitt. "Our defensive effort was holding them to only one shot." The Eagle's extended their lead to 42-24 after three quarters of play. Brashier had by far their best offensive quarter of the night in the final period as the Bengals scored 22 points. One of the keys to the Eagles ability to fend off a Bengals' comeback attempt was free throw shooting. The Eagle's started three of seven from the free throw line but hit fifteen of twenty from there to end the game and secure the win. Nyquille O'Fair led the Eagles with fourteen points while Alijah Means added nine points of his own. KJ Valentine scored eight points in the post for the Eagles as Cole Hoskyns added seven points down low as well. Hoskyns and AJ Littlejohn combined to help lead the Eagles to twenty bench points. Greg Campbell led the Bengals with twelve points and older brother Torrin Campbell added eleven points. Jake Laird was a spark off the bench for the Bengals as he hit three three-point shots on his way to ten points. The Eagles will be back in action on Saturday as they take on Spartanburg at 2:00pm at Dorman's Farm Bureau Insurance Tipoff. Lady Eagles Win On A Buzzer BeaterChesnee used a last second field goal to fight off a furious Bengals' rally to pull out a 37-35 win in front of the home crowd on Friday night
"This was a great win for my girls," said Chesnee head coach Carey Burns. "This will give them confidence going into some big games next week." Jessa Beach's bank shot sparked the Eagles to a 7-0 run to open the game before the Bengals responded with a 6-0 run of their own sparked by back to back baskets from Kelsey Brown. A basket from Abbey Ray with just under a minute left would give the Eagles an 11-8 lead at the end of the first quarter. After Brashier scored early in the second quarter the Eagles were able to end the half on a 9-0 run to build a 24-10 halftime lead as Carley Hammett scored five of the Eagle's nine points during the run. The Bengals opened the second half on a 5-0 run but back to back baskets from Hammett and Beach increased the Eagles lead to thirteen. Beach and Hammett combined again for back to back baskets to end the quarter and gave Chesnee a 32-20 lead after three periods of play. Brashier outscored the Eagles 15-3 in the opening 7:56 of the fourth quarter and had a chance to take the lead with under :30 to play but the Eagle defense came up with the stop. After the ball was knocked out of play under the Eagle's basket with :04 play Abbey Ray received the inbound pass and after missing her initial shot attempt she grabbed her own rebound and scored as time expired to give Chesnee the 37-35 win. "I really didn't want to go into overtime with this being our fourth game of the week," said Ray. "After the basket went in it was just a sigh of relief because this was a big win over a very good team." Abbey Ray and Jessa Beach led the Lady Eagles with nine points each and Carley Hammett added a spark off the bench with seven points of her own. Brie Smith did a solid job stepping into a starting role in the backcourt with Kymiah Blair as the duo had to deal with relentless pressure from the Bengals and Smith finished with a career high six points. "I thought Brie done an incredible job," said Burns. "Brie and Kymiah both stepped up tonight with ball handling." The Eagles will be back in action December 9th at 6:30pm as they host the Landrum Cardinals. Comments are closed.
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