RACHEL, W.Va. — Ahead of Wednesday’s showdown at unbeaten North Marion, veteran Robert C. Byrd coach Bill Bennett felt his team was in a good place.
“I hardly ever get a feel for a game and when I do it’s wrong, but our practice last night was good and I felt like they were confident,” Bennett said. “We shot around today and I thought they were still confident and shot the ball well.”
The Eagles proved their coach’s thoughts to be true, jumping out to a 20-2 lead and maintaining a double-digit advantage throughout the entire second half to hand the Huskies their first loss, 60-40.
Although North Marion (11-1) reeled off nine straight points over the late stages of the opening quarter into the early portion of the second, the early 18-point deficit was too much to overcome.
All five Eagles’ starters scored to aid in the successful start, with Bryson Lucas’ six points and Gavin Kennedy’s five leading the way.
North Marion was held without a field goal until Cruz Tobin scored in transition with 46 seconds remaining in the first quarter.
“They can take stuff away. You have to hand it to them,” Huskies’ head coach Chris Freeman said. “They did a good job of doing things to try to get us out of our halfcourt sets.”
After the Huskies crept to within nine at 20-11 on a pair of Praise Chukwudozie free throws with 4:47 to play in the first half, the Eagles (8-2) responded by scoring the next eight points to take a 28-13 lead into halftime. Those eight points came on four layups — three from Khori Miles and one by Lucas.
At the break, the Huskies had made only 4-of-23 field goals, while Miles and Lucas had eight points apiece to help RCB make 13-of-30 shots.
“It’s just been drilled into their heads that everything goes with our defense,” Bennett said. “If you get tired of seeing zone, then play defense. You get the lead, then they’ll have to go man.”
Byrd didn’t display any complacency to start the second half and instead got a pair of three-pointers from Tommy Hawkins along with Kennedy’s triple to hold its largest lead at 37-14.
The Huskies faced a 44-24 deficit entering the fourth quarter, and although they were able to trim the Eagles’ advantage to 46-34, NMHS got no closer.
Miles helped seal the win with a dunk off a steal with 5:05 left, and after struggling from the free throw line for most of the contest, the Eagles made 8-of-10 attempts over the final 2:51.
“They got after it and they wanted to prove a point tonight and they did,” Freeman said.
RCB finished 50 percent from the field as it made 22-of-44 shots. The Eagles also registered 15 assists and had a balanced scoring attack, led by 12 points apiece from Miles and Kennedy. Hawkins scored 11 and Lucas finished with 10 points and a team-high 10 rebounds.
In addition to making only 13-of-53 field goals for the game, the Huskies had 19 turnovers.
Michael Garrett’s 14 points and 13 rebounds led North Marion, while Chukwudozie finished with 11 points and nine rebounds. The Huskies’ leading scorer, Gunner Murphy, was limited to eight points before fouling out.
“You’re not going to hold Gunner scoreless and you’re not going to keep him from shooting,” Bennett said. “You just want to make him work and make his shots difficult and I thought he shot a lot of tough shots.”