Closing out a nearly perfect second quarter, Red Bank High School senior basketball player Anthony Bonner picked off a pass at midcourt and finished on the other end with one of his three dunks in Monday's 64-56 District 6-AAA road victory over Signal Mountain.
The Lions defense, also sparked by Jaylen Rice and Kendrick Lloyd, was in sync for a full eight minutes as their 1-2-2 press did not allow the Eagles to score in the second quarter on the way to building a commanding 31-10 halftime lead.
"Every guy was moving on the defensive end and we really made a statement with our pressure," Red Bank head coach Nick Fike said of his team, which outscored the Eagles 17-0 in the key second quarter. "We are a team which is going to press you throughout the game. That's just who we are and how our guys know how to play."
Bonner continued his season-long assault on the rim as the 6-foot-3 forward led all players with 28 points as he collected most of them through the first two-and-a-half quarters. Junior teammate Rice also provided an offensive spark with 11 points and had a pair of alley-oop passes to Bonner, who had a double-double with 10 rebounds.
"Anthony deserves every bit of credit he's getting," Fike added. "He has put in the effort to get to the great level he's at right now. Ant is playing extremely well and our guys rally around him and are playing well as an entire team."
Staff photo by Patrick MacCoon / Red Bank's Anthony Bonner wins the opening tip-off against Signal Mountain as the Lions handed the Eagles their first district loss of the season.Red Bank (19-6, 6-2 district) was able to pick up some ground in the district with the win over a team that had won the previous two meetings.
Senior guard Andrew Matukewicz was stellar with 22 points and four assists for Signal Mountain (14-7, 7-1 district), which fought back valiantly in the fourth quarter and, if not for a pair of technical fouls called against them, could have very well made the finish extremely interesting.
Christopher Kennedy drained four 3-pointers for the Eagles, while Blake Wolfard scored 14 points and blocked a pair of shots in the fourth quarter, as did teammate Josh Thompson. The first of the two technicals against the hosts came after Thompson retaliated after being knocked in the head while on the floor scrapping for a loose ball with Malik Rizer and Signal trailing by 10 points.
"Those are my guys and I have trust in them to bounce back," Signal Mountain head coach Steve Redman said. "We are still in first place in the district and hopefully we will see them again in the district finals. Andrew has been such a great leader for us this season. He is leading us in points and assists. We just couldn't get stops tonight when we had to late and that second quarter really killed us."
Meanwhile, the Signal Mountain girls rolled to a 70-19 victory in the early game as junior Carlee Lowry scored 28 points. The state's No. 8-ranked Lady Eagles improved to 16-4 overall and 6-0 in district play.
Contact Patrick MacCoon at pmaccoon@timesfreepress.com.
Staff photo by Patrick MacCoon / Signal Mountain's Andrew Matucewicz scores with his left hand on his way to a 22-point showing in a home defeat to Red Bank.