Eastern finishes eight game road series in dominant fashion
By: Nick Sinclair
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CROWN CITY, Ohio (WOUB) — The Eastern Eagles (12-5, 6-2) travel to the South Gallia Rebels (9-4, 4-1) for their eighth straight road matchup. Both teams are winners of five of their last six games, including Eastern’s big win against Federal Hocking on January 15, and are looking to build on their previous momentum in this game. But it would be head coach Hayden Plummer of the Eastern Eagles who would take this one by a score of 57-29.
Before the game started, the Eagles were down a key piece in Mackenzie Robertson. The game would start off very slowly with the Rebels holding possession at the tipoff. After the teams traded possessions, it would be Eastern that would start to find traction and take a comfortable lead of 14-7 to end the quarter.
The second quarter saw the Eagles continue their momentum from the first, with freshman guard Kyrstin Fackler hitting an early three-point shot. She was not done there as she would take it baseline to baseline a few possessions later to end it with a layup. The half ended with Eastern up 27-15.
The main reason for the Eagles’ success was that Fackler ended it with 10 points and Emeri Lloyd with five points. The Rebels wouldn’t go down so easily, as Jacie Booth, Sharla Hammond, and Ryliegh Shafer have combined for all 15 of the Rebels points.
At the start of the third quarter, Eastern had turned into a full-court press, meaning they were playing more aggressive on both offense and defense. This strategy ended up working in Eagles’ head coach Plummer’s favor, as they would score 15 points. The defense was the shining star of the quarter as they held South Gallia to only 3 points, with the game going into the fourth quarter with a 42-18 ball game.
The Eagles would keep this momentum in the last quarter of the game, with Eastern emerging victorious 57-29. A huge reason for Eastern’s success has been because Fackler ended the game with 17 points, Lloyd with 11 points, and Braelyn Simpson and her double-double with 14 points and 12 rebounds.
Eastern returns home to play Wahama (4-6, 3-3) to help build on their momentum from winning six of their last seven games. While South Gallia travels to take on Northwest (1-11, 1-4) and looks to get back in the win column.