Southern Sports & Travel, By Darron Thomas
The Presbyterian Bobcats are shifting gears as post-season play rapidly approaches as was displayed Saturday evening in a 51-25 win over East Rankin in Pelahatchie. Hayden Eustachy led all scorers with a game high 22 points as the Bobcats jumped out to an early lead en-route to improving their season mark to 19-5 with two games remaining before post season plays cranks up.
Sophomore Tyler Rhodes hit a 17 foot jumper for an early East Rankin lead but Hayden Eustachy canned a 3-pointer off the glass at the buzzer to cap off a Presbyterian 10-0 run to finish the opening quarter on top 10-2.
(Above) Cade Martin (#25) of Presbyterian pulls down an offensive rebound
The Bobcats increased their lead to 19-2 on a James Akers basket at the 5:51 mark of the second quarter. Presbyterian grabbed their biggest lead of 33-10 on an Akers assist to Hunter Hawkins with 6 seconds remaining in the half. Tyler Rhodes was fouled attempting a 3-pointer at the buzzer and canned all three free throws as the Patriots trailed 33-13 at the halfway point.
Presbyterian maintained their twenty point margin as they entered the final quarter with a 43-23 advantage and went on to grab a 51-25 win.
Hayden Eustachy led the Bobcats with 22 points, Hunter Hawkins added 8, James Akers 7, Dan Rust 6, Cade Martin 4 and Drew Deen and Gage Garner had 2 apiece.
Tyler Rhodes led East Rankin with 8 points, Thomas Flickner had 6, Mathew Toal 4, Dylan Cross, Spencer Shoemaker and Tyler Gray 2 each and Blake Hill 1.
The Patriots slipped to 13-12 with the loss and will be at Jackson Prep on Tuesday before finishing out the regular season schedule at home on Friday night against Copiah on senior night.
(Above) East Rankin's Tyler Rhodes (#11) with a first half driveSophomore Tyler Rhodes hit a 17 foot jumper for an early East Rankin lead but Hayden Eustachy canned a 3-pointer off the glass at the buzzer to cap off a Presbyterian 10-0 run to finish the opening quarter on top 10-2.
(Above) Cade Martin (#25) of Presbyterian pulls down an offensive reboundThe Bobcats increased their lead to 19-2 on a James Akers basket at the 5:51 mark of the second quarter. Presbyterian grabbed their biggest lead of 33-10 on an Akers assist to Hunter Hawkins with 6 seconds remaining in the half. Tyler Rhodes was fouled attempting a 3-pointer at the buzzer and canned all three free throws as the Patriots trailed 33-13 at the halfway point.
Presbyterian maintained their twenty point margin as they entered the final quarter with a 43-23 advantage and went on to grab a 51-25 win.
Hayden Eustachy led the Bobcats with 22 points, Hunter Hawkins added 8, James Akers 7, Dan Rust 6, Cade Martin 4 and Drew Deen and Gage Garner had 2 apiece.
Tyler Rhodes led East Rankin with 8 points, Thomas Flickner had 6, Mathew Toal 4, Dylan Cross, Spencer Shoemaker and Tyler Gray 2 each and Blake Hill 1.
The Patriots slipped to 13-12 with the loss and will be at Jackson Prep on Tuesday before finishing out the regular season schedule at home on Friday night against Copiah on senior night.
Post game comments:
Presbyterian head coach Gary Harris
“We were struggling coming into tonight offensively. I thought tonight we looked more like we did earlier in the season, we got our rhythm back. We defended well and rebounded really well in the first half, that’s what was able to give us the lead early. I’ve been on our guys about rebounding, we’ve been wanting to run and I told them we cannot run if we don’t rebound. Tonight I thought we did a better job of rebounding the ball.”
A couple of your guys got banged up a bit tonight, what's their status?
“We were struggling coming into tonight offensively. I thought tonight we looked more like we did earlier in the season, we got our rhythm back. We defended well and rebounded really well in the first half, that’s what was able to give us the lead early. I’ve been on our guys about rebounding, we’ve been wanting to run and I told them we cannot run if we don’t rebound. Tonight I thought we did a better job of rebounding the ball.”
A couple of your guys got banged up a bit tonight, what's their status?
"They're fine. This time of year it’s going to happen. They (ERA) were down and they had to gamble a little bit but nothing was vicious or dirty they were just trying to scramble and make things happen and our guys have to do a better job protecting the ball when they drive. There are hands in there and we have to work on that.”
Who's up next for Presbyterian?
"We have two public schools, Bay High on Tuesday and Hancock on Friday. Bay High was ranked #1 in 4-A for awhile and they’re a very good team. They beat Purvis by about 40 points and we struggled with Purvis so it’s going to be a test, but it will be fun going to play them on their senior night. Our guys will just get after it and it will help us for our tournament. Then we have Hancock High on Friday for senior night at our place, so two good public school teams which will really test us going into the tournament."
"We have two public schools, Bay High on Tuesday and Hancock on Friday. Bay High was ranked #1 in 4-A for awhile and they’re a very good team. They beat Purvis by about 40 points and we struggled with Purvis so it’s going to be a test, but it will be fun going to play them on their senior night. Our guys will just get after it and it will help us for our tournament. Then we have Hancock High on Friday for senior night at our place, so two good public school teams which will really test us going into the tournament."
PCS...10...23...10...8...51
ERA...2....11...10....2...25
