GREENLAND — The Huntsville Eagles spread the wealth Friday night on their way to a 66-38 victory over the Johnson County Westside Rebels at Dee Lee Gymnasium.
With the victory the Eagles have earned a spot in the championship game of the Greenland Invitational at 5:30 p.m. today against Cedarville.
After a slow start by both teams, the Eagles started to heat up as Checotah Clark scored eight points in the first quarter, including a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to give the Eagles a 15-6 lead.
Coming out of halftime with a 31-16 lead, the Eagles turned up the scoring in the third quarter, going on a 23-point scoring onslaught and taking a commanding 28-point lead.
Taking charge for the Eagles in the third quarter was Cole Frick and Colby Faulkner. Frick led the way with eight points in the third quarter, with Faulkner coming right up behind him with five points. Both Frick and Faulkner finished tied with a team-high of 12 points.
“I thought Frick played really well, he made some good on the court decisions for us that really helped us out,” Huntsville coach Jim Stafford said “Faulkner is a real hard-nosed player and he came on the court and started knocking down some shots for us.”
After struggling early on, the Rebels got a spark off of the bench in Andrew Estep, who is one of the youngest players on the team. He led all scorers with 14 points, but his impact was felt on more than just offense end. Estep also snagged 5 rebounds along with 3 steals to try to keep the Rebels within striking defense.
But ultimately it was too much Eagles.
“They are extremely physical and have the numbers to play that way,” Rebels coach Shannon McBee said. “We are the smallest school in the tournament and we played well last night, just didn't have it tonight.”
Huntsville 66, JC Westside 38
Huntsville 16 15 23 12 — 66
JC Westside 5 11 10 12 — 38
Huntsville (5-0): Faulkner 12, Frick 12, Clark 11, Anderson 8, Kirk 5, Scott 4, Carroll 3, Evans 3, Wieland 2, Green 2.
JC Westside: Estep 14, Hayes 7, Spurlock 5, Stricklin 4, McBee 3, McCormick 2, McKee 2.
Cerdarville 73, Mansfield 48
The Cedarville Pirates punched their ticket to the championship game, getting off to a hot start in the first half.
The Pirates spread the ball around against the Tigers as 10 players got on the score sheet. Garrett Parson led all scorers with 23 points and Zach Bradford finished with 10 points.
Cedarville 73, Mansfield 48
Cedarville 20 20 16 17 — 73
Mansfield 8 11 11 18 — 48
Cedarville: Parson 23, Bradford 10, T. Myers 9, E. Fincher 8, C. Fincher 8, A. Myers 7, Mowery 3, Z. Myers 3, Cantrell 1, Brewer 1.
Mansfield: Jones 20, Dake 13, Cotner 7, Hall, 2, Elmore 2, Triska 2, Fisher 2.