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Bluejays slip in second half, fall to Covington 94-81
NEW MADRID -- In their first action of the season the Charleston Bluejays saw a hot first half give way to a cold finish Friday as they closed out opening night of the Riverbend Classic against Covington, Tenn.
After trailing by just a basket at the break, the Bluejays were out-paced by 16 points in the third quarter as the Chargers held on for a 94-81 win.
"I think they were a lot fresher than we were," Charleston head coach Danny Farmer said of Covington. "If it was conditioning we can take care of that, but we didn't played well the second half. It's our first game and their fifth or sixth game. That makes a difference."
Charleston came on strong out of the gate with six Bluejays contributing a basket in a first quarter where they never trailed.
A seven-point advantage in the final minute of the first quarter, however, was met by a 7-0 Covington rally to tie the game, 27-27, on a 3-pointer from Reginald Holmes to open the second quarter.
A free throw from Tyler Craig gave the Bluejays their final lead of the night with two minutes left in the first half before the Chargers entered the locker room on a 7-4 run to go up 50-48.
The third quarter wasn't kind to Charleston as turnovers and missed free throws mounted. Covington came out of the break on a 14-5 run in the first three minutes of the half and never looked back.
After outscoring the Bluejays 29-13 in the third quarter they sustained a 17-point lead a few minutes into the fourth before going into clock-killing mode to close out the win.
"Rebounding just killed us," Farmer said. "I think if we can get better rebounding the ball we could be competitive. We were competitive for a half and that's it."
Leading Charleston's effort was senior Delfincko Bogan and junior Dontarious Sharp with 17 points each. Bogan started off hot with nine first quarter points and 13 by the half while Sharp scored eight points in the second quarter alone.
Junior Kelvondre Moore finished with 13 points with Craig and junior Tenerrious Ewing contributing 11 and 10 points each.
After seeing four of his five starters from last year leave through graduation, Farmer was pleased to see so many players taking on bigger roles and contributing early.
"That's one of the bright spots about it," Farmer said of five players scoring in the double-digits. "They played hard the first half, but with the team I have we have to make free throws all the time. We have to getter rebounding the ball as well.
"But we have the whole year to get better doing it. We're going to play a lot of great teams so we'll get better."
For the Chargers, Bobby Shanks had a game-high 26 points and Malcolm Taylor finished with 18 points.
Covtington went 20 for 25 at the charity stripe compared to the Bluejays' 13 of 27 mark.
Charleston will look to rebound Saturday when they play Liberty Tech, Tenn., at 5 p.m.
| Charleston | 27 | 21 | 13 | 20 | - | 81 |
| Covington | 24 | 26 | 29 | 15 | - | 94 |
CHARLESTON (81) -- Kelvondre Moore 13, Dontarius Sharp 17, Delfincko Bogan 17, Mardareyon Clark 9, Tenerrious Ewing 10, Tyler Craig 11, Darron Howard 3. FG 31 FT 13-27, F 16. (3-pointers: Moore 1, Sharp 1, Bogan 1, Clark 1, Ewing 1. Fouled out: none.)
COVINGTON (94) -- Jalen Clayton 11, Reginald Holmes 9, Trevon Williams 5, Ish Jones 6, Malcolm Taylor 18, Bobby Shanks 26, Kaleb Estes 13, TJ Miller 2, Foster 4. FG 33 FT 20-25 23. (3-pointers: Holmes 1, Williams 1, Taylor 1, Shanks 3, Estes 2. Fouled out: none.)