Eagles continue hot streak with 81-51 win over Portageville

sports@standard-democrat.com

NEW MADRID -- After an up and down first half of the season that had their record hovering around .500, the New Madrid County Central Eagles have been on a roll of late.

On Friday night the Eagles picked up their fourth straight decision in an 81-51 rout over visiting Portageville.

"I challenged the guys about effort," NMCC head coach Travis Day said. "Give me effort for four quarters and I think we did that by keeping constant pressure on them and putting (Portageville) in a position they didn't want to be in. I'm very pleased with our effort."

Shortly after the Bulldogs knotted things up at 10-10 late in the first quarter the Eagles began a dominant 10 minute stretch that firmly put them in control of the game. A Kiel Causey 3-pointer gave NMCC the lead for good, 13-10, with 1:43 left in the first period as the Eagles finished the period on a 10-3 run.

Building on the momentum, NMCC put together their best quarter of the night in the second when they outscored Portageville 30-10. Willie Jimerson paced the Eagles in the frame with 11 points while Mikael Walker pitched in six points.

By frustrating the Bulldogs with their press, NMCC was able to hold them to only on basket through the first five minutes of the frame, going on a 20-3 run in the process.

Though back-to-baskets by Caleb Gooch and A.V. Banks broke up the Eagles streak with 2:39 left in the half, NMCC closed out scoring 10 straight points to going into the locker room up 50-23.

"We played really hard, we just couldn't handle their pressure," Portageville head coach Jason Irby said. "We worked on it for a couple of days and talked about that being the biggest key to the game, but there's no way for us to practice and really simulate what we saw here tonight.

"I thought we just had a lot of silly turnovers and played out of control at times. That was (NMCC's) game plan and they were able to do that."

Coming out of the break NMCC fed on a couple Bulldog turnovers for seven straight points, grabbing a 34-point lead, 57-23, with 6:25 to play in the third. They pushed ahead by as many as 36 points late in the period before Portageville staged their biggest rally of the night.

With two minutes left in the third Derrick Priggel hit a pair of free throws that were followed by a Jaylin Mosby three. By the end of the quarter Portageville staged a 9-0 rally that was pushed to 12-0 when Kynan Mosby opened the fourth with a 3-pointer.

Despite the comeback Portageville remained 23 points down and it didn't take NMCC long to regained what ground they'd lost. They responded with four straight buckets and finished the contest on a 12-5 run.

For the Eagles, Jimerson had a game-high 24 points while going 6 of 7 at the charity stripe. Causey and Walker finished with 14 points each with Causey hitting four 3-pointers on the contest.

Asten Newsom added 10 points to he Eagles' cause.

Banks fueled the Bulldogs with 22 points on the night, hitting five of his team's eight three points, including three in the first quarter alone. Priggel was second on the team with 10 points.

"We put pressure on them and got after them hard," Day said of Portageville. "The thing I told everybody is every shot has to hand a hand in their face. Banks is a good shooter, but I think we made him force a lot of shots. He had to shoot with a hand in his face and that's what you want.

"So I was very pleased in our pressure, full court and half court. They couldn't get comfortable and I think that's what we did a good job of."

The win moves NMCC to 9-6 while Portageville drops to 7-8.

Earlier in the evening it was NMCC's junior varsity defeating Portageville's junior varsity 59-35. Chris Farr led the way with 14 points.

NMCC 20 30 19 12 -- 81

Portageville 13 10 20 8 -- 51

NMCC (81) -- Willie Jimerson 24, Mikael Walker 14, Dre Wilson 4, Drew Palmer 8, Asten Newsom 10, Gage Silman 3, Kiel Causey 14, Javarcus Word 4. FG 31, FT 13-20, F 8. (3-pointers: Causey 4, Word 1, Walker 1. Fouled out: none.)

PORTAGEVILLE (51) -- Kynan Mosby 5, Jaylin Mosby 6, Derrick Priggel 10, A.V. Banks 22, Caleb Gooch 8. FG 20, FT 3-6, F 16. (3-pointers: Kynan Mosby 1, Jaylin Mosby 2, Banks 5. Fouled out: none.)