Eaglettes season ends in regional semifinal loss to South Side
By Kendall Patterson
Sports Editor
Once CCHS Basketball teams entered regionals, they were to triumph over their first round opponents, the Liberty Tech Crusaders.
The Eaglettes stomped the Crusaders with no trouble at all, 71-39, and advanced to the regional semifinals.
Before the Eagles faced off against Liberty, they had a very close game against Lexington for third place in the district last Tuesday.
The first quarter of the game was competitive, but the Eagles stretched the lead to 10 at halftime, 38-28.
Lexington did not give up though and put fans at the edge of their seats in the second half.
Lexington eventually took the lead and was ahead 64-60 with 1:20 left in the game.
However, Chance Thompson decreased the deficit to one point with a three-pointer.
Then, with 60 seconds left, Lexington traveled and lost possesion of the ball. The Eagles were able to capitalize on their mistake as Chad Barham tied it from the free throw line and made one of two with 52 seconds left.
So it came down to the last seconds, and with an attempt to score, the Tigers were denied with a block by Hunter McLemore with 7.1 seconds left and Barham was able to get down court and score a buzzer layup for the win. The final score was 66-64.
After the Eagles defeated Lexington to earn third place in the district, they had another close game against Liberty on Saturday, and were again able to earn a W.
When the Eagles had the lead over Liberty with around two minutes left (48-46), they killed the clock to 52 seconds but could not score and Liberty got the ball back and scored a layup and one for the lead, 49-48.
Then the Crusaders made the score 50-48.
Eventually it was up to 8.7 seconds left after Eagles Head Coach called timeout with Eagles having the ball. Barham faced major pressure with the season on the line from the free throw line after he was fouled with .2 seconds left. He saved his team’s season from ending after knocking both buckets down sending the two teams into overtime with the score at 50.
In overtime, the Eagles had the lead by two points when they fouled Liberty and gave them the chance to tie it but Liberty only made one of two making the score 59-58. On the rebound of the seoncd free throw attempt Liberty stepped out of bounds with the ball with 14.4 seconds left.
With 12.1 seconds left McLemore was fouled but could not make them.
Liberty could not score a last shot attempt after Barham blocked it and the clock soon expired for the Eagle win, 59-58.
The Eagles then played McNairy on Tuesday, February 28 in the semifinals.
The day before, Monday, February 27, was a sad day for Chester County High after the Eaglettes faced off against the undefeated South Side Hawks and lost 64-25. The loss ended the Eaglettes season in the semifinals with an ending season record of 16-14.
Read next week’s issue for the Eagle’s regional semifinals results.
