Despite being short-handed, Cleveland's boys' basketball team still had enough experience and talent to hold off stubborn East Hamilton 52-50 in Thursday's Chatt-Town Classic at Chattanooga State.
Playing without two key players -- including team captain and sixth man Drew Lambert -- who were out with the flu, the Blue Raiders connected on five 3-pointers in the second half, none bigger than Aryone Thomas' from the left corner with 2:22 remaining and his team only ahead by one point at the time.
"We had good looks against their zone but we just couldn't get anything to fall for a while," Blue Raiders coach Reggie Tucker said. "We got off to a good start in the second half because we were getting the same looks, only we finally started making those shots.
"I think our guys definitely need the break right now. It's coming at a good time because we've played a lot of games already and not having everybody able to go tonight was really big. Drew plays a huge role for us. He can play multiple spots and knows what we need to be doing on the court at all times.
"You could tell not having him, we were missing our glue guy to help settle us down."
Neither team led by more than four in the first half, but Cleveland (10-2) hit as many 3-pointers in the third quarter (three) as it had the entire first half -- including two by Alex Hyder -- in building a 11-point lead in the final minute of the quarter.
But East Hamilton began pounding the ball inside with 6-foot-5 post Zachariah LaBoo scoring eight of his 14 points in the fourth quarter, including six of his team's eight unanswered to pull within one.
But Thomas, who led all scorers with 19 points, countered with his only 3-pointer of the game to push the Cleveland lead back to four. After the Hurricanes had closed within two, Gabe Leeper made a pair of pressure-filled free throws with 14 seconds remaining to extend the lead back to four.
Kaden Herman scored 10 of his 12 points in the second half for East Hamilton and Ashton Munson added 10.
"This was a good test," Tucker said. "We've been talking about having a winning attitude and responding and tonight our guys had that attitude to find a way to win.
"Not having everybody able to go was tough and we have some things, like careless turnovers and rebounding, to clean up but we'll go back to work on those things."
Christian Heritage 61, Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe 53: In the second game of the Chatt-Town Classic, the Lions (8-0) built as much as a 25-point lead before LFO closed the gap with a 21-4 run in the fourth quarter.
Jax Abernathy led all scorers with 32 points, including three 3-pointers, and Isaac Plavich added 11. Jayden Dover led the Warriors with 14 points -- 12 of which came in the fourth -- and Amari Burnett finished with 13.
Chattanooga Prep 56, Howard 42: In the opening game of the Chatt-Town Classic, the Sentinels used a 20-13 third-quarter run to take command and continued to pull away.
Chattanooga Prep's Derrrick Roberson led all scorers with 15 points, Eli Gaines added 13 and DeAndre Turnbow 10. The Hustlin' Tigers were led by Manny Bean's 13, with Christian Holland and Myquise Thomas each finishing with 10.
Brainerd 62, Central 56: In the final game of the Chatt-Town Classic, the Panthers jumped out to a big early lead and then had to hold off a furious rally late by the Purple Pounders. Donivan Thomas and Trea Shaw led Brainerd with 12 points apiece and J.T. Hood added 10. Central was led by Matthew Sharpe’s game-high 22 and Ronye Watson’s 14.
Contact Stephen Hargis at shargis@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6293.