Eagles escape WGTC in 112-106 track meet

Carrollton, GA - Over the years, the WGTC-CTC men's series has always produced some high scoring barn-burners, but the Golden Eagles win over the Knights on Wednesday night at Oak Mountain Academy surpassed them all.

The Eagles jumped out early 12-4, but the Knights quickly got back in the game on a pair of tri-fectas from Joe Williams. CTC held a narrow spread for much of the first half, until a flurry of tough shots and easy transition buckets by WGTC, helped them push out to a 36-30 lead. The Eagles fought back and re-took the lead at 43-40, before a discrepency in the score keeping shook out in favor of WGTC, as they suddenly led 47-42, with no meaningful administrative checking by the referee crew. Nonetheless, the game moved on, with the Eagles trailing 49-44 at the half.

A renewed focus to start the second half saw the CTC men race back and take the lead, at 52-49, after eight unanswered points. Four of those coming from Ben Drake, on a baby hook, followed by a dunk after breaking the defensive press. Keith Ray and Donald Jordan also got quick, driving baskets. But, the Knights answered again, with five straight points on a three by Bryan Foster and lay-in by Joe Boyer, to go back up 54-52.

From that point, the Eagles finally solved the press puzzle and began to thread the Knight defense for baskets. The Eagles gradually built a lead of 87-74, at one point, only so see the Knights hit several threes again, to trim the score back down. Drake's lay-in with 4:00 min left pushed CTC back up 101-90 - a lead you would think would start to break the spirit of the WGTC players. But it did not! Forster drained consecutive threes, followed by a driving lay-in from San Rozier to quicky cut it back down to a three point spread. Ray and Jordan followed with a trio of lay-ins for the Eagles to push the cushion to 107-98, but Williams then knocked down another long-range bomb. The Eagles answered with a bucket, to make it 109-101 Then, after a missed lay-in by the Eagles, Williams canned another trey, to cut it to five with under a minute to play. With some rare patience, the Eagles worked the shot clock down to eight seconds, before finding Jamion Simpson at the top of the key, who drilled a clutch three to seal the hard-fought victory. Rozier got another bucket with six ticks left, to bring the final to 112-106.

The win moved the Eagles to 4-0 on the year, while the Knights slipped to 2-3. CTC will now host Southern Crescent on Friday night at Lakepoint Sporting Community in Emerson, GA. Tip off is set for 7:30pm. General Admission is $5.00.