Eagles and Lady Eagles Win Home Openers

Evensville, TN -- Rhea County High School basketball opened season with sweep of Soddy Daisy on November 30, 2021. Lady Eagles opened with 48-34 and Eagles followed with 67-61 win.

Lady Eagles 48 Soddy 34

Emily McClure started the Lady Eagles off with first four points and Emma Gentry's layin pushed the Rhea lead to 6-0 with just under five minutes left in first quarter. Soddy cut the leadd to 8-6 before Ava Travis and McClure scored baskets to push the lead to 12-6. Later in quarter Travis and Sky Tran added to the lead for 15-6 with 6:22 left in quarter. A Gentry basket gave the Lady Eagles their biggest lead of the half at 21-9. Soddy responded with five point run for 21-16 halftime deficit.

McClure gave Rhea first score in the third for 23-16 lead. Emma Gentry had a nice seven point run to help Lady Eagles to 34-18 lead halftway through the third quarter. Sky Tran broke out the Eurostep for another basket to push the Eagle lead to 38-18 before a late basket put thrid quarter end score at 38-20.

Soddy make a run early in fourth to cut lead to 39-27 before Ava Travis's basket put Rhea up 39-27. Later a Soddy free throw cut the lead to 43-32 with 2:14 left in quarter. Travis had good quarter with 6 points to help the Lady Eagles down the stretch as they won 48-34.

Scoring for lady Eagles: Ava Travis 12, Emma Gentry 11, Emily McClure 11, Kylie Garrison 5, Sky Tran 4, Summer Jenkins 3 and Kaitlyn Taylor 2.

Soddy: Melody Crawley 13, Alivia Hall 10, Jada Trimiar 4, Adyson Collins 2, Varner 2 and Rebecca Morgan 2.

Eagles 67-61 Win.

Eagles and Trojans played a close first quarter with Soddy taking a 5-4 lead with 5:05 left in quarter. Bryce Dpree hit a basket and free throws for 8-5 lead before soddy pulled wit hin 9-8 at end of quarter. A corner three from Dupree pushed the Eagle lead to 16-9 with 5:42 left in second quarter. With 3:41 a Bridgman corner 3 pulled Trojans within 19-16. Gavin Roddy hit a fast break layup with 1:41 to keep the Eagles in lead 25-21. Martin scored two late free throws and Soddy countered with inside make for 27-24 halftime score in favor of Eagles.

Nathan Landtrap hit a three from out front for 29-27 lead for soddy early in thrid quarter. With 6:03 in third, Kaleb Martin snuck inside for basket to give Eagles 31-30 lead. Landtrap countered a Akin three for 34-34 tie with 4:20 left in thrid quarter. Roddy countered a Pankey three for Soddy for a 40-39 Eagle lead with 2:51 left in thrid. A Jonathan Love basket pulled the Trojans into a 44-44 tie with 1:26 left in third. Drew Fisher put the Eagles into 46-44 lead with 1;16 left in quarter before Zack Ryans made a driving bank shot from in front for 46-46 tie for end of quarter score.

Kaleb Martin got the Eagles off to good start with first 4 points of the fourth and countered a Soddy basket with steal and feed to Akin for 52-48 lead with 6:22 left in fourth. Free throws by Fisher and Martin moved the Eagles to 56-50 lead that was halved by a corner three by Chad Eller with 4:52 left in game. Martin went to work with sweet step-back basket and nice baseline-drive basket to push the Eagles to a 61-53 lead with 3:46 showing on the clock. Soddy used a six point run to pull within 61-59 after Love found an open lane for a basket with 1:16 left in game. Kyler Akin found an open path for a layin and Bryce Dupre hit two big free throws for breathing room for the Eagles with 65-59 lead with 25 seconds remaining. Akins added a couple of free throws for final 67-61 score.

Scoring for Eagles: Kaleb Martin 22, Kyler Martin 17, Bryce Dupre 13, Gavin Roddy 6, Drew Fisher 6, Austin Brackett 3.

Scoring for Soddy: Zack Ryans 18, Shaun Pankey 14, Chad Eller 9, Nathan Landtrap 6, Bryson Reid 5, Blade Bridgman 5.