Eagles drop tough one on road at #2 ranked Georgia Highlands, 87-77

Rome, GA - The #14 ranked Chattahoochee Tech men fought from behind from the beginning of the game against highly touted and #2 ranked Georgia Highlands. The game lived up to expectations, and Georgia Highlands showed they are as good as advertised by playing with an energy level that was hard for the CTC men to match consistently.

The Chargers jumped out to a big lead early on, leading by as many as 14, behind five three pointers in the opening minutes. Tyrik Evans had the hot hand early for GHC. CTC was able to gradually work back into the game, as the jitters wore off, and scoring started to come from driving buckets by Ryan Davis, along with a three from Keith Ray and a couple of post up baskets from Arthur Bennett. The Eagles had trimmed the GHC lead to two, and had a shot at the halftime buzzer to potentially take a lead into the locker room. The Chargers led 40-38 at the break.

After trading baskets to start the second half, Keith Ray's trey from the left wing gave CTC its first lead of the night at 43-42. Highlands would answer quickly and the lead traded hands for a while. On a Davis buck later, CTC would take another brief lead, then the score was tied at 55-all at one juncture. But, Georgia Higlands used a strong run just past the mid-way of the second half to create a spread the Golden Eagles could not recover from. The Charges went back up by seven as Doniel Dean disected the Eagle defense for consecutive short-range buckets, followed by a dagger three by Justin Bridges. Later the Eagles had several chances to recover, but missed a dunk and several important freethrows. In the closing seconds, the Eagles failed to score after being forced to foul, and GHC was able to muster enough freethrows to seal the victory.

For Highlands, who improves to 18-1 overall and 7-0 in the GCAA, Doniel Dean finished with 27 points in the game to lead all scorers, 20 of which came in his huge second half performance. Evans finshed with 18 on the night, while Bridges had 16, coming on 4/7 shooting from beyond the 3-point line.

Chatt Tech, who falls to 17-2 on the season and 4-1 in conference, was led by Davis with 21 points and 10 rebounds, while a badgered Mosby mustered up a tough 16 points. Keith Ray and Arthur Bennett each had 10, as Jordan Oliver and Corey Tobin had 8 and 6, respectively in the loss. The Eagles connected on a respectable 50.9% from the field, but suffered at the freethrow line, going just 13 of 24.

The Eagles will now head back out on the road on Saturday to face off against long-time nemisis East Georgia State. Tipoff is set for 4:00pm in Swainsboro.