Hardwood Heroes Sports
Eastern Loses Steam in Second Half, Falls to Golden Rockets
By: Dylan Thompson
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WELLSTON, Ohio- It was a rough night for the Eastern Eagles as they faced off against the Wellston Golden Rockets. With one of their primary ball-handlers and top scorer in Colton Reynolds out for the night, the Eagles had to count on Garrett Barringer to facilitate the offense.
A key component to Eastern’s 55-43 loss to the Golden Rockets was Wellston’s high pressure. Starting out the game with a full court press, Eastern had a hard time breaking the trap, leading to them going down 16-8 early. But the Eagles, resilient as ever, fought back into the game. Giving Eastern a great boost from three, Ryan Dill went 3-of-4 from beyond the arc, securing an easy nine points for Eastern.
But the Golden Rockets were relentless from beyond the arc and Eastern just couldn’t keep up. With the likes of Rylan Molihan and RJ Kemp, Wellston’s guard play was unmatched in this game, especially with Colton Reynolds out of commission for the night.
Guard play was the story of the night, again, since Reynolds wasn’t playing, Eastern’s Coach was forced to play his underclassmen like Blake Newland. But, on the upside, the younger Eagles really stepped up to the challenge and while no, they didn’t win, the future of the Eagles team looks to be impressive, maybe with some future Heroes of the Week in years to come!
The Eagles were too little, too late in the second half. While coming out of halftime strong, the Rockets looked comfortable the rest of the game, keeping the score at least eight points ahead the second half. The Eagles really struggled to keep the Rockets at bay since they were scoring inside the paint and outside the arc, it seemed like the previously 3-10 Rockets were unstoppable.
In the end, the Eagles lost to the Rockets by 12 points, full court pressing Wellston until the very end. But it’s safe to say Eastern caught a break in this game, because the Rockets didn’t hit many of their free throws throughout the game, and very well could have won by a larger margin. Eastern looks to build on their improvement against South Galia on Friday.