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East Prairie Eagles beat Gideon in Bulldog Classic for season opener
GIDEON, Mo. - The opening round of the Bulldog Classic at Gideon High School has taken place to open up the basketball season in the Bootheel.
In the opening round of play, Gideon lost to the Eagles of East Prairie by a final score of 88-72.
East Prairie’s head coach Gary Scott was anxious to see how his team would perform in its first competition of the year.
“For this being our first game, I thought we did a pretty good job,” Scott said. “Obviously we have to get better defensively, but we scored the ball so there’s not much to complain about. We just got to get better defensively.”
The Eagles soared to a 19-9 advantage over Gideon to conclude the first quarter. Their largest lead of the game was as much as 23 points. They were up 43-20 at the half.
However, Gideon came out with a little more grit in the second half. The Bulldogs closed the gap behind the efforts of senior Drake Montegomery. He led the attempted second-half comeback with 12 points to open up the third quarter.
Along with Montgomery’s hot streak, East Prairie fell into some foul trouble which aided the Bulldog’s comeback. They recorded 10 fouls in the second half sending Gideon into the double-bonus.
The Bulldogs brought the game back to within eight points during their third-quarter run. However, East Prairie was able to hold off the complete comeback.
Despite their numerous fouls and lacking defense, the Eagles still outscored the Bulldogs in the second half. This helped them keep a 17-point lead to finish the third.
“We just had to keep playing,” Scott said. “I told our guys that. I had to use my bench and I had guys who gave us good minutes coming off the bench, but when we get in foul trouble we just have to keep playing. We can’t let up.”
After a few runs in the final quarter of play, East Prairie continued to hold off Gideon with a comfortable double-digit lead.
With a few minutes left in the game, the Eagles found a fast break opportunity which resulted in a dunk from senior Noah Johnson. This play sealed the deal with a little over two minutes left, as Scott subbed all of his starters out.
Johnson would leave the game with 32 points, the most from either team.
The next highest score from East Prairie was senior Ty Wallace. He made four three-pointers throughout the game and was 2-2 from the free-trow line. He was subbed out after dropping 20 points.
Along with Johnson and Wallace, senior Connor Marcum added 19 points to the Eagles total.
Gideon had four players score in double digits. Montgomery and fellow senior Hayden Lacewell each scored 18 points along with junior Landon Weaver who also dropped 18 points.
Senior Jacob Plunkett finished with 13 points.
Following this loss, the Bulldogs will move on to the consolation bracket to continue play. They face off against Portageville on Thursday, Dec. 5 at 4:30 p.m.
Meanwhile, East Prairie moves on to the winner’s bracket where they face Hayti on Thursday, Dec. 5 at 7:30 p.m.
Scott, pleased with his team’s performance, hopes they can fix some of their mistakes and improve from their first game of the season.
“This tournament gets tougher and tougher as we advance,” Scott said. “No matter who we play from here on, it’s going to be a tough game.”