By Brennan Stebbins (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
Players milled about on the court with parents and classmates and posed for a few photos, but that was the extent of the celebration for the College Heights basketball team on Wednesday night.
With another game looming on Saturday, the fifth-ranked Cougars didn’t dwell long on a 54-43 victory against Blue Eye in a Class 2 sectional game at Carthage.
“The thing about it right here, you celebrate tonight and then tomorrow you move on to the next game so you only get a little bit of time to celebrate,” College Heights coach Eric Johnson said. “You’ve got to turn around and find out who you play tonight and then you start calling people and getting video on them.”
The Cougars (24-4) made history, though, on Wednesday, earning the school’s first-ever sectional win after losing by 15 in that round last year.
“Hopefully we keep making history,” Johnson said.
College Heights never trailed and started to pull away in the second quarter. It was 11-9 after a three by Blue Eye’s Logan Isbell, but Miller Long made two three’s in less than a minute and later scored on a put-back to make it 20-12. The Cougars kept the eight-point advantage going into the half.
It was a 10-point game early in the third before three’s by Isaiah Mitchell and Isbell helped bring Blue Eye within 28-22 with 5:40 left in the period.
CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS OF THE GAME
But the Bulldogs (23-4) failed to score on their next six possessions and College Heights led by 11 entering the fourth.
“We had some spurts there in that third quarter,” Johnson said. “That’s been kind of a good quarter for us.”
“I was wanting to get the ball inside and try to attack a little more,” Blue Eye coach Kyle Turner said. “The kids had a different idea. It didn’t work out. If those shots fall it looks really smart. Unfortunately tonight it didn’t. Give them credit, they did a good job of staying under control and capitalizing there. They deserve a lot of credit. They’re a great team, very well coached and tonight they were the better team.”
College Heights pushed its lead to 20 points halfway through the fourth before Blue Eye made things interesting late. The Bulldogs got as close as nine points at 52-43 in the final minute after a three by Lance Clark, but four free throws from College Heights in the final 57 seconds helped keep them at bay.
Johnson said College Heights controlled the momentum. And the Cougars were ready for the big stage after last year’s loss to Crane in their first-ever sectional appearance.
“That’s what you want to do,” he said. “Getting up on them to begin with there and making them play catchup, that helps too.”
“We came in last year not knowing what to expect and probably a little intimidated,” he said. “But we’ve been here and done it so we know what it’s like.”
“They have a lot of size,” Turner said. “That was probably the thing that bothered us the most early on. Finally in the fourth quarter we decided to start attacking but it was too little, too late.”
Long led all scorers with 23 points, Curtis Davenport scored 10, Hagen Beck had 8, Ethan Adel and Ethan Meeks each had 6 and Caleb Quade chipped in a point for College Heights.
Blue Eye’s Clark had 17 points and Mitchell scored 10.
College Heights will face Norwood in the quarterfinal round Saturday at Republic
