Sports
Eastern Bounced From Tourney
By: Marisa Salopek
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As Eastern head coach Jeremy Hill has been saying all year, the Eagles could not put together four consecutive quarters of good basketball Wednesday night. It was the third quarter that put the Ironton St. Joseph Flyers past the Eagles in a 47-36 loss.
“We caught them at the right moment,” Hill said. “We just didn’t carry it for four quarters.”
A layup and foul halfway through the fourth sealed the deal for Ironton St. Joseph to advance to the sectional title as they took a double-digit lead.
Wednesday’s night game looked to be a very even matchup and close game in the first half. Eastern came into the game as the underdog with a record of 2-19 while St. Joseph was 10-10 on the season.
The Flyers struggled to score against Eastern’s defense in the first and second quarters. The first half consisted of back-and-forth action, but the Eagles looked like the more dominant team.
Senior Chase Cook hustled hard in his last high school game, taking two offensive charges and contributed two steals in the first half. Eastern went on a 10-2 run to end the second quarter for a 19-13 lead at halftime.
“Offensively, we were very patient which was good. Defensively I think we had one of the best game plans we could’ve had for anybody this year,” head coach Jeremy Hill said. ”We were executing it in the first half and the second half we went away from it.”
St Joseph looked like a different team after the half though, taking the lead with two big 3-pointers halfway through the third to give the Flyers a 26-21 lead over the Eagles. The third quarter presented the Eagle downfall.
St. Joseph outscored Eastern 19-6 in the third and made a jump shot at the buzzer to lead 32-25 going into the final quarter to seal the deal for the rest of the game.
Only five players scored for Eastern, but three had 10 points, including Cook, Jett Facemyer and Daschie Facemyer. Also contributing to the Eagle loss were 15 team turnovers and only six made shots in each half.
“In the third quarter our shooting went south,” Hill said. “When we can’t shoot, can’t score, we don’t win.”
The game concluded with a 47-36 loss as the Eagles ended their season with a 2-20 record. Looking toward next season, the team is only losing three seniors.
“We are a young team, our starting lineup was a freshman, two sophomores, one junior and senior,” Hill said. “We’re going to have everyone back.”
As a rookie Eastern coach, Hill understands what went wrong this year and plans to have a good offseason together with the team in hopes of improving their record next season.