Dominant Waterford Wildcats snuff out Eastern 57-38
By: Dylan Westmeyer, Ethan Sargeant
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REEDSVILLE, Ohio (WOUB) – The Eastern Eagles won their first game in 695 days last Friday, and they faced a tall task to back it up as they faced a Waterford squad hungry for a TVC-Hocking title.
Waterford has some familiar names for those who followed them on Gridiron Glory – Holden Dailey and Grant McCutcheon, holdovers from the Wildcat football squad, are key cogs in the Wildcats’ basketball squad.
The game started out as a slow burn, as Waterford jumped out to a 8-0 lead, but Eastern was able to rein them in to make it 10-5 at the end of the 1st. The second quarter was more of the same, as Eastern was able to hang in there with Waterford in a first half with just 34 combined points.
It was 19-15 at halftime in favor of the Wildcats, and the Eagles were right in it. About the defensive mindset in the first half, Eastern head coach David Kight said, “Our first instinct is always to play good defense. Play hard, create turnovers…the low scoring was not in the playbook.”
After the interval, the game opened up. Waterford’s Jacob Huffman carried the load offensively for the wildcats, putting up 17 points and 4 rebounds as the Wildcats ended up outscoring the Eagles 38-23 in the second half. Waterford really pulled away in the 4th, behind strong team defense and some clutch buckets from Hoffman.
For the Eagles, Trey Hill went ¾ from 3-point range for 12 points and had 4 assists. The Eagles were outrebounded 24-17 and were held to just 19 points in each half. Coach Kight said “The expectation is to go out and compete for 32 minutes to win the game…last Friday [team’s first win in 695 days] was not the destination, last Friday was the first step.”
After the elation of last Friday, the Eagles slumped to a tough 57-38 loss to the Wildcats. They’ll attempt to pick up the pieces on Tuesday in a big conference game against South Gallia.