Pleasant Home’s defensive rebounds in the second half carried the Eagles to a 47-35 homecoming and area victory over Kinston on Friday night.

Eagles coach Jerry Davis called the final 16 minutes of the game probably the best he’s seen on rebounds in the three-game series PHS and KHS have had this season.

“We rebounded a lot better in the second half,” Davis said. “In the first game (where Kinston won 41-38 in overtime), they destroyed us (on getting rebounds). In the first half tonight, they probably got half their points on putbacks.

“In the second half, we cleaned it up,” he said.

The needed clean up on the Eagles’ store isle was necessary.

Late in the second period, Kinston cut the game to 23-16 after an easy bucket on the inside and later on, Dallas Dean got a putback to cut the Eagles’ lead to 23-18 with less than a minute to go.

PHS held on the ball and Lance Davis got a putback to put the lead to 25-18 at the break.

Lance drove the lane for a successful layup to start the third period and dominant second half.

Troy Fantroy, who took control on the boards, got a putback on the offensive end to give PHS (11-8, 3-1 in Class 1A, Area 2) a 29-19 lead and went on to score the next four points for his team as the Eagles led

37-24 at the end of the third period.

The final eight minutes — free-throw wise — wasn’t Pleasant Home’s best.

Davis said the boys were 6-for-17 in the fourth period.

“We just got away from it,” he said. “They (Kinston) did the right thing. They were down and got themselves in a foul situation, and they were fouling on purpose to try to give themselves a situation.

“We couldn’t make free throws,” he said. “This is two ball games in a row and we were just really fortunate.”

Lance got a jumper and a drive down the lane for easy buckets to give PHS a 41-29 lead with more than four minutes left.

Kinston’s Patrick Smith nailed a 3-pointer with 3:50 left to cut the game back to single digits for the first time since the beginning of the second half.

Clark later got a trey for the Bulldogs to cut Pleasant Home’s lead to 45-35.

“Friday nights in basketball seasons are big because we got two days to linger if you don’t win,” Davis said. “We played well in spots. I’m pleased with them.

“We make a lot of mistakes,” he said. “We’re not a great basketball team by any means. We hold our own most nights against people like us.”

Davis finished with 24 points on the night. Fantroy and Chase Gunter had eight points each. Ty Hammett drained five points.

Clark led KHS with 12 points. Smith and Dean had nine points each.

In B-team action, Kinston won 29-17.

Pleasant Home is back in area action on Tuesday at Geneva County.