Kyler Akin drives down-court in game vs Ooltewah on February 8, 2022.

RCHS Also Drops Close one 91-86 to McMinn

February 14, 2022

Ooltewah, Tn -- Rhea County High School basketball dropped a narrow 80-77 overtime game at Ooltewah on Tuesday night, February 8, 2022. Kyler Akin had 17, Bryce Dupre had 16 points to lead the Eagles, Gavin Roddy 14, Kaleb Martin 13, and Austin Brackett 11 all scored in double figures to lead the Eagles. Caleb Carr had 4 points to complete the scoring for the Eagles. Petty had 33 points to lead Owls and Corbin added 19. Luster and Styles scored 11 and 10 respectively. Kitchen 3, Tuary 1, and Acklin 1 completed the scoring for Owls.

Austin Brackett got the Eagles on the board with elbow 3-point basket for 3-2 lead. Kyler Akin gave Eagles a 7-4 lead with 4:58 left in first quarter and Bryce Dupre pushed lead to 9-4 shortly after. Petty hit a basket to stop the run and bring Owls to 9-6. Owls used a rash of turnovers to take the lead and a Corbin 3 at the buzzer pushed Owls to 17-13 lead. Roddy and Martin hit early baskets in second before Martin made nice move for tying basket 20-20 with 5:43 left in second. Kyler Akin's 6-point run gave the Eagles a 26-20 at 4:20 left in second. A basket-steal-basket series pulled Owls within 28-25, but Roddy responded with elbow 3 for 31-25 lead with 1:39 left until half. Akin hit a corner 3 to push the Eagle advantage to 34-29 and that stood as halftime score.

Corbin and Dupre exchanged 3's to open the third quarter. Score stood at 37-34 when Owls took timeout. It was Kaleb Martin with the nice Euro-step basket after the nice baseball pass from Roddy and Eagles led 43-34 with 4:35 left in third. Dupre was fouled on corner 3 attempt and hit 2 of 3 for 45-34 lead. Owls used back-to-back turnovers by Eagles for 5-0 run to trail 45-42 at 2:46 mark of third. Dupre responded with elbow 3 and then dropped in two technical free throws for 50-42 lead with 2:30 left and Austin Brackett hit a lay-in for 52-46 lead. On next Owl possession, a charge turned the ball over to Eagles and Brackett hit fast break bucket for 54-48 lead with minute left in third. After a Roddy basket, Petty hit the buzzer-beating 3 to put the score at 56-53 at end of 3 quarters of play.

Brackett started the Eagle scoring in fourth for 58-53 lead, but Styles responded with 3-pointer to cut lead to 58-56, but Brackett responded with inside basket to push lead to 60-56 with 6:44 lead in fourth. Roddy had nice dribble-drive to put Eagles up 63-56 at 5;30 mark. Petty picked off Eagle pass and streaked down for a basket to cut lead to 63-60 with 4:11 left and he hit and-one free throw to cut lead to 63-61, but Akin found streaking Carr to lay-in for 65-61 lead. Owls lost a 3-point basket when ref called a foul before the shot on Eagles down low. Eagles next were flagged with technical foul to send Corbin to the line, where he made both free throw attempts to cut lead to 65-63 with 3;36 left. With 2:36 left, Dupre drove down lane and put up and put up short mini-hook that slid through basket for 67-65 lead.

Refs called a double-technical with 2:04 left in fourth. With 1:44 left, Drew Fisher came down with big rebound and Rhea called timeout with 1:44 left. On inbounds play Owls went up and batted the ball down toward their court on a play that easily could have been called a foul. Owls managed to save the ball from going out-of-bounds and Petty scored the tying basket(67-67). With 36 seconds remaining, there was a 5 second count of Owls being guarded that turned ball over to Eagles. Looked like a quick 5 seconds. Owls knocked the ball away, but Eagles recovered and called time-out to maintain possession of the ball. Owls trapped Eagles in corner, forcing a bad pass that Luster took down-court for go-a-had basket with 16 seconds remaining. Eagles missed and were forced to foul. Owls made first of one-and-one but second shot was rebounded by Keyshawn Smith and time out was called with 4.2 seconds remaining. Drew Fisher looked more like a quarterback than a linebacker, which he plays in football as he hit Akin at half-court. Kyler took two dribbles and launched the high arching shot that settled through the net as time expired and buzzer sounded. It was 70-70 and time for overtime.

Petty scored first basket of the OT quickly. Eagles lost ball on out-of-bounds play that had Owls intercepted with lot of bodies hitting the floor. Corbin hit the second basket of the overtime for 74-70 lead with 2:26 left in game. Caleb Car hit a driving shot to pull Eagles within 74-72. Corbin was fouled on rebound and sank one free-throws for 75-72 lead with 1:40 left in OT. Petty then sank two free throws for 77-72 lead and Owls came up with steal and basket for 79-72 lead with 36 seconds remaining. Eagles got a 3-pointer from Akin with 21 seconds remaining. Akin came up with big steal and stepped back for the 3 -pointer but it rimmed around the basket and Owls came up with rebound. Eagles were forced to foul. Owls hit one free throw for 80-76 lead with 11 seconds remaining. Eagles' Johnson put in the final points of game as buzzer sounded for final 80-77 score.

McMinn 91 Rhea 86

February 10, 2022

On Senior Night the Eagles hosted McMinn County and in another close contest, Eagles dropped the game 91-86. Bryce Dupre tallied 31 points, while hitting on five 3-point baskets. Kaleb Martin 23 points as the other Eagle in double figures. Kyler Akin and Caleb Carr each added 9 points. Finishing off the scoring for Rhea was Keyshawn Smith 8, and Gavin Roddy 6. Martin and Austin Brackett lead the Eagles in rebounding with 7 and 6 respectively. Kaleb Martin and Kyler Akin each had 3 assists to lead Rhea.

Rhea and McMinn battled to first quarter tie 21-21 behind 11 points by Dupre. It was Cayden Hester powering McMinn to 32-19 advantage in second quarter for 53-40 halftime lead. Eagles cut into the lead during the third quarter with 26-17 advantage to only trail 70-66 entering fourth quarter. Teams played to almost even fourth quarter but McMinn won the quarter 21-20 for the final 91-86 margin.

Kaleb Martin's fastbreak lay-in pulled the Eagles within 78-76 with 2:52 remaining and a basket/free throw combo pulled Rhea within 80-79 with 1:44 left in game. Eagles only trailed by 80-80 with 1:09 left in game. A few seconds later Kyler Akin's elbow 3 put the Eagles within 85-83. McMinn hit their free throws down the stretch and Rhea had a couple of turnovers as Cherokees escaped with 90-86 win.

Tucker Monroe scored 25 points and Ty Runyan scored 21 to lead the way for McMinn. Also scoring: Cayden Hester 15, Hayden Smith 10, Trent Peak 8, Davion Evans 7, Daylen Spradling 3 and Carson black 10.