Pleasant Home wins homecoming over W.S. Neal

Pleasant Home flapped the rust of its wings and got down to business Friday night in a 67-55 homecoming victory over W.S. Neal.

For the better part of the week, including yesterday, students have been out of school because of the wintery weather that swept through the area. With school being out, it didn’t help matters because PHS couldn’t practice.

The lack of execution for the first period and a half showed for PHS as WSN took an early 8-2 lead and tied the game 12-12 going into the second.

“That was it right there,” PHS coach Bradley Stephens said in response to how the winter weather affected the team.

To start the second period, the home team started utilizing its half-court trap, which helped garner a short 4-0 run on a Chase Gunter pass to Tanner Veasey, and a Garrett Barton steal and conversion on the other end.

Troy Fantroy, who finished the night with 21 points and 13 rebounds for a double double, made two free throws to increase his team’s lead to 18-16.

Jon Cole Chesser later cut it to 26-18 with 3:50 let in the first half on a drive through the paint.

W.S. Neal’s Michael Williams scored on a putback to make it 28-20, and teammate Christopher Jones made a 3-pointer for a 31-23 game with 1:40 left.

Veasey, who played good defense with his legs late in the first half, got a good pass to Zachery Roberts for a bucket to bring the lead back to 10 at 33-23.

PHS led 34-27 at halftime despite W.S. Neal’s DJ Hodges converting a layup with 1 second left.

Alex Myrick scored nine of his 15 points in the third period and dominated in the air by getting crucial offensive rebounds for putbacks to help PHS widen the gap.

Myrick got a putback to bring it to 41-32, and then later converted on a 3-point play to make it 44-32 with 3:19 on the ticker. PHS led 46-32 after Myrick got another putback on one of his 15 rebounds.

PHS led 49-35 at the end of the third period.

“I think something clicked (with Alex),” Stephens said. “He played big. Alex has been learning a lot. He’s developing and he just keeps working at it. That’s what it takes to get better. I’m hoping that tonight that he’ll realize that.”

W.S. Neal’s Dalton Shell started the fourth on a 3-pointer, but Gunter answered with a runner to keep it at 51-38.

Fantroy helped facilitate a 3-point play by making a pass over his head to Myrick to increase their lead to 60-41 with 4:29 to go.

For the final 16 minutes of the game, PHS played its game, Stephens said.

“We just kind of did what we normally did,” he said. “My big thing was to tighten down on that defense, and they did that. We’ve just got to get some more going (in the future).”

Stephens let the second-string come in with 1:47 to go, and WSN made a little run until the end on a Kenneth Walker jumper and a Jonathan Gantt putback.

Chesser chipped in 9 points for PHS.

Hodges led WSN with 15 points. Shell had 12.

It took more than two minutes for either team to score in the first period.

WSN led 8-2 early, but PHS came back to cut it to four when Fantroy got in a putback with 3:50 to go in the first.

Barton got in 3-pointer to give PHS its first lead of the game.

Prentice Lewis-Rankin answered with a drive down the lane to tie the game at 12-12.

In B-team action, Pleasant Home outscored WSN 10-3 in extra time to win 39-32.

The game was tied 29-29 at the end of regulation.

PHS made clutch free throws in the end for the win.

Walt Weaver and Reid Adams led PHS with 10 points each.

Traderek Jones led WSN with 11.