On a Cold December Wednesday night we found ourselves in Glenoak for a much anticipated matchup between the dangerous visiting McKinley Bulldogs and the hometown Glenoak Eales. Both teams came into this one needing a the win. The Eagles were 2-2 coming into this Federal League showdown after dropping their last outing to the Perry Panthers. On the other side of things was a McKinley team that you could tell was still very angry after their performance against Warren Harding lats week. McKinley won their last game against Lake with a passion defeating the Blue Streaks by 31 and getting back on track. This would be both teams 2nd Federal League game and being a rivalry game both teams fan bases packed the Glenoak arena. The Bulldogs came into this game with a little more to prove though as this would be Sean Weatherspoon’s first game against the Eagles since knocking them out of the Playoffs last season.
The Bulldogs came out of the gate strong. McKinley started the game with a Jayvion Carter 3 on the first Bulldog possession. The rest of the Dawgs would catch fire as Senior do it all man for McKinley, Reed Sims Jr., would knock down a 3 and Jaylen Jeter would get himself out to a quick start as well giving the Bulldogs a 10-0 run to start the 1st. The Eagles were able to get a little bit of offense in the rest of the 1st with Issa White Knocking down a 3 to really give Glenoak some momentum as they cut it to 21-14 to end the 1st quarter.Â
The Bulldogs really started to pull away with their lead in the 2nd quarter with Reed Sims jr and Jaylen Jeter catching fire. Both Jaylen and Reed were really able to get whatever they wanted inside and outside as the duo were firing on all cylinders. The McKinley duo would finish the 1st half with a combined 27 points as Reed had 13 and Jeter had 14. The Eagles knew they would really have to come out of the locker room strong as they trailed 40-28 going into the half
Glenoak did come out strong to start the 3rd. Issa White, who led Glenoak in points on the night with 18, was able to rally the squad and fight all the way back and cut into the McKinley lead and take the deficit down to 5. It was a 7 point game going into the 3rd quarter. Head Coach Rick Hairston knew his squad was still in this thing. Across the court you could tell that McKinley wasn't pleased with their performance to start the 2nd half. They knew in the 4th quarter they would have to put their foot on the gas. It was back and forth in the fourth as Glenoak hung with McKinley. The Bulldogs outscored Glenoak 19-16 in the 4th but the deficit would be to much for the Eagles to overcome. The Bulldogs would win this one with a final score 77-67 over Glenoak.
With the win McKinley moves to 4-1 on the season and stay undefeated in the Federal League. The Eagles fell under .500 at 2-3 on the season. Both teams have another tough Federal League matchup as the Eagles will try to get back to a .500 as they take on Hunter Hershberger and the Hoover Vikings. The Bulldogs will travel to Perry High school to take on the 4-1 Perry Panthers led by big men Luke Wolf and Nico Martelli.
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