The Pleasant Home Eagles varsity boys held off a late comeback attempt to beat the Zion Chapel Rebels 48-38 Tuesday night in Pleasant Home.

 

It was a close, hard-fought game from both sides for most of the night with the Eagles pulling away in the final minutes of the game.

 

“There were a lot of ups and downs, and I think our team needs to mature as far as how to handle adversity. That’s the main thing I saw tonight,” Eagles head coach Troy Turman said.

 

The Eagles led by 18-16 at the half, with Troy Fantroy leading the scoring with 9 first-half points. The second quarter was the only time the Rebels outscored the Eagles with 11 points to the Eagles’ 9.

 

“I saw a lot of positives on offense and defense,” Turman said. “The negatives were mainly mental. We would have negative plays and we respond badly. We need guys to respond with harder play after negative plays, and not get down on themselves. That comes with maturity though.”

 

In the third quarter, the Eagles scored 9 more points by moving the ball effectively on the offense side of the court. Four different Eagles pitched in to score in the third with Fantroy scoring 3; Jase Beck scoring 2; Alex Myrick scoring 2; and Tanner Veasey also adding 2 points.

 

The fourth quarter was the highest scoring total for both teams with the Eagles dropping 22 points and the Rebels 16 points. Fantroy lead the Eagles with 10 points in the fourth, Chase Gunter added 6 points, and Veasey added 4 points to give the Eagles a 48-38 victory and move to 1-0 on the early season.

 

“I was proud of our defensive intensity tonight. For the first game I thought we did a decent job,” Turman said. “Now we just have to work on improving a little more each game.”

 

Fantroy led the Eagles with 22 points, Gunter added 11 points, Beck finished with 8 points, Veasey had 6 points, and Walt Weaver had 2 points.