Caleb Carr goes up for the Basket to Give Eagles the lead Late vs Cleveland on Final Regular Season Game to Secure District Title.(Photo:GaryBolden)

26-5 Eagles come from 13 down in 4th quarter for the win

2/9/23 -- Cleveland, TN -- Rhea County needed a win over Cleveland in its last regular season game to secure a share of the 4A District 5 Title. The Eagles were recovering from a tough loss at McMinn County the night before to push them into a must-win against Cleveland to secure the district title. In the McMinn game the team played with a lot of emotion and energy, so it would be a tough matchup with Cleveland, a team they had beaten 49-46 only 6 days prior in a game played at Rhea County. So the stage was set as Eagles looked for a district title they had not claimed in over 2 decades.

Neither team looked sharp in the first quarter and Cleveland pushed out to 7-2 lead early. The Eagles came back and stayed within 3 points of the Raiders through the first quarter until a late basket gave Cleveland the 15-10 first quarter lead.

Cleveland dominated the early part of the 2nd quarter to take a 23-11 lead after Brayden Carroll hit corner 3 and Andrew Miolen hit a 2 just in front of the basket with 6:47left in quarter. The Eagles buckled down and did a much better job on defensive boards and were successful getting the ball down low as Carr and Smith scored the next 5 points for the Eagles, but Eagles still trailed 25-16 with 3:44 left in quarter. Carr came up with another big defensive board and Bryce Dupre hit the 10 foot jumper to pull within 25-25 with just over a minute remaining and that was the halftime score.

Raiders came out strong in the top of the 3rd quarter buckets by L.J. Adams and Aaron Smith put Eagles down 34-23 with 5:16 left in the quarter. Bryce Dupre hit a 15 foot jumper for the Eagles first second half basket to cut the lead to 34-25 with 4:32 left in quarter. Logsdon, coming off the bench hit his second basket of the quarter a three-pointer to cut lead to 34-46 in the last minute of quarter and the 12 point margin stood at quarter's end.

Eagles had a big hill to climb, down by 12 on the road on the second night of back-to-back. Several Eagles took turns fueling an 8-0 run before KeShawn Smith went high over two Cleveland defenders for rebound and put-back basket to cut the Raider lead to 47-52 with 3:41 left in the game. It was Bryce Dupre with the jumper to pull Eagle to 49-52 with 2:25 left in the game. Kyler Akin followed shortly after with the drive and basketball to pull within 51-52. With 45 seconds remaining, Caleb Carr drove the baseline and used the glass for the go-ahead basket. Braylon Geer stepped up to the spotlight and calmly sank two free throws for the final margin 55-52 with 12.5 second left in game. Eagles used one of their free fouls to cut the time down to 5 seconds and Cleveland actually got a decent look at basket, but from about 25 feet and it hit front of rim, bounced off the back of the rim and harmlessly onto the floor and Eagles had the win and the share of the district title, 55-52.

When it comes to heroes for the Eagles, there were many. Geer had 8 and Dupre had 7 points in the 4th quarter. Carr had double digit rebounds in the game as well as the go-a-head points, Bryce Dupre and Keshawn Smith had big 4th quarter buckets and before that Hank Logsdon provided 8 big points off the bench. For the scorebook, Kyler Akin led with 17 points and Caleb Carr was also in double figures with 10 points. Other points: Hank Logsdon 8, Bryce Dupre 6, KeShawn Smith 3, Sam Stumbo 2 and Cooper Brackett 1. Caleb Carr get the "Player of the Game" Award for his double figure rebounds, defense, 10 points and a big deflection with 13 seconds to give Eagles the ball with the lead late in the game.

Cleveland had five players who made the scorebook and the spacing was just 4 points from top to bottom. Aaron Smith led Raiders with 12 points and a trio of Raiders, Miolen, Jordan and Adams each had 8 points. Braylon Carroll finished off the Raider scoring with 7 points. Cleveland only had one 3-point basket in the game and the Eagles had 3. Not close to some of the shoot-outs we have seen this year. This was a tough defensive-minded game by both squads. Tough loss for Raiders and big win for Rhea, and we will do it again on Friday February 16th with the 6 pm tipoff at Rhea County High School.