Sports
Athens survives scare at Meigs
By: Morgan Eastman
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After an intense brawl on the boards, a close game throughout all four periods, the game resulted in the first away win for the Athens Bulldogs. Although Meigs was seeking their first win of the season, they leave tonight with a record of 0-5 as the bulldogs take the lead in the league with a 4-2 record.
Both teams had serious trouble holding onto the ball and communicating to teammates where the ball the needed to go. Meigs seemed to take advantage of the fact that Athens was just not rebounding either on defense or offense, which, along with free throws due to the amount of fouls on Athens’ part, is where they got most of their points from.
What was projected to be an easy win for the Bulldogs turned out to be false because of the refusal to fall far behind by the Marauders. By halftime, Athens was leading by three 28-25.
At the end of the third, the Bulldogs still maintained the lead by a slim margin of 42-39. The fourth period is when the real pressure and excitement began. With less than a minute to play, Meigs lead Athens by one point, 49-48. As the fans in maroon and gold were all on their feet, Athens forward Ryan Leurhman calmly sank two free throws to take the lead and snatch victory away from Meigs.
One thing Athens did have on their side was their freshmen’s ability to stand out and handle the pressure of the close-game situation presented a concern Coach Skinner had.
Leading scorers for the bulldogs were Leurhman and Joey Burrow with 9 points each, followed by Devon Sharp with 8 points. Leurhman also joined Josh Skinner in leading rebounds with 4 boards each. Ryan Boyer led the Marauders in points with 18 with Jesse Smith close behind with 15.
Although being disappointed by the overall performance of his team tonight, Skinner agreed that a win is a win and that “winning in a close one is a lot better than losing one.”
Athens will be enjoying a long holiday break and come back to face the Jackson ironmen on their court December 27th.