FREDERICK, Md. – After beating the Eagles by double digits back in January, the hot shooting Eagles take down the Blazers 91-88 in the tight matchup on Saturday afternoon.
Inside the Box Score
Kullen Robinson (Alexandria, Va./Alexandria City) scored 25 points while shooting over 60-percent from the field.
Garrison Linton (New Market, Md./Oakdale) had 14 points with eight assists and seven rebounds. Linton places second in single season assists in program history with two games to go.
Jack Fricka (Alexandria, Va./West Potomac) had eight points to pair with his four rebounds and assists.
How it Happened
Easten's Olise Onyeka with his size became factor receiving the ball at the high post and hitting a well-practiced turnaround or drawing the double team dishing to another teammate.
Troy Fulton (Denver, N.C./Lincoln Charter School) was juiced for his senior night having some stop-and-pop opportunities and cashing in two threes early.
Familiar face Zubair continued his physical play in Woodsboro Bank Arena with a dunk and a layup he bodied out to keep Eastern within a basket more than 12 minutes to go in the game.
The bucket fest occurred with eight made threes in the game after 10 minutes between both teams,
Jevon Yarbrough (Williamsport, Md./Williamsport) hit three straight threes on his attempts to swing the 32-28 score in the favor of the Blazers of the Blazers.
Eastern looked to match the Blazers' pace as conference opponents had done this season, and when the shots are falling teams can keep up.
DaRon Sherman taking the inbound would turn and take full speed to the basket before finding an athletic big, just a way the Eagles would try to tango with the Blazer play style.
Either way, after Hood scored 121 points in the first matchup, both teams were shooting over a 55-percent clip (Eastern at almost 70) and seven players in the Blue & Grey had a made basket. So far, Eastern from the field outmatched the Blazers but the 10 threes in the first half made a recipe for 53-52 score.
The defensive end for Hood picked up in the second half with the collapse of passing lanes in the middle of the paint, suppressing the hot hand of the Eagles.
Robinson, after battling injury throughout the season, showed in the second half thar he was getting the stamina the brought him in the starting five. Robinson later got a pass underneath the basket from Linton and although he missed the finish, he battled through contact with three defenders and drew a foul to add on to his point total.
Although pass lanes were closed, players at the top of the key were finding ways to loft over the ball to the high heights that Onyeka and Lee can jump. With
Garrett Cox (Glen Allen, VA/Glen Allen) in foul trouble and the space created underneath another soaring dunk by the men in maroon put the Blazers down by seven with five minutes to go.
Inside the five-minute mark an inbound by Linton found a trailing Robinson to cut the deficit to three. After a Cox defensive rebound, the Blazers found Yarbrough in transition and as he fell away from the basket his attempt spun off the glass and in with a foul. The score was now tied, and Woodsboro Bank Arena found a new decibel.
A pair of free throws would put the Blazers up 85-83 with three minutes to go. A finger roll bucket and a foul by Arkese Claiborne would put Eastern back up by one. A later bucket would extend Eastern's lead and a foul fighting for rebound on Hood leave them down five with less than five to go.
With a little dabbling in the double bonus territory for both teams, the Blazers were with the ball and called a timeout with 15.4 to go.
Hood was able to get off two cracks at the game-tying triple but were denied by the closeout defense.
"We got to get things figured out defensively," said head Coach Chad Dickman. "We just don't have the defensive mindset to compete for a championship right now, and that's disappointing. We have the ability, but until we're willing to dig in and get stops for 40 minutes, we can't reach our potential."
"Eastern was great tonight. The fact that they are at the bottom of our conference speaks to how strong the conference is. They can beat anyone and they came in ready to get revenge tonight."
Analysis
Hood was outscored in the paint 52-36.
The Blazers got 44 points off the bench.
For the Opponent
The trio of Onyeka, Lee, and Claiborne had 20 or more points apiece.
Notes
Hood falls to 15-8, 8-4 in conference. However, they clinch a playoff spot and hold the No. 4 seed.
Eastern improves to 10-13, 3-9 in conference.
Up Next
The squad finishes their home schedule with a matchup against Alvernia on Tuesday with a 7 p.m. tip-off.
