Blistering start propels Charleston to 74-39 homecoming win over Portageville

sports@standard-democrat.com

CHARLESTON -- Any hope Portageville had of playing spoiler Friday night at Charleston's homecoming went out the window just four short minutes into the game.

Opening the game on a blistering 23-2 run, the Bluejays built a 29-point lead by halftime and cruised a 74-39 turbo-clocked win.

"We jumped on them in the beginning, getting steals and turning our defense into offense," Charleston head coach Danny Farmer said. "We got that big lead and I liked that. We're getting better on our press. The pressure was put on them. They couldn't get it across. We were kind of doing our disguised run and jump press We'd double-team and rotate."

After trading baskets with the Bulldogs at the start, the Bluejays went on to score 20-straight points and force Portageville to burn several timeouts to try and turn the tide. By the time the Bulldogs straightened things out the Bluejays were up 21 points, 23-2, with 4:01 still to play in the quarter.

"We talked for a couple days about really trying to be strong with the ball and make short, quick and decisive passes," Bulldogs' head coach Jason Irby said. "We just didn't do that. It's hard to simulate what they do in practice. We hadn't seen that all year. They're by far the best team we've played. They jumped on us so quick and by the time we realized what happened we're down 25 points."

While Charleston senior Delfincko Bogan would heat up later in the game, it was junior Tennerious Ewing leading the charge out of the gate. He finished the first quarter with 15 points, including 11 during the Bluejays' game-opening run.

Ewing finished the first half shooting 7 of 12 (58 percent) and 5 of 8 (63 percent) inside the arc.

Charleston's Tennerious Ewing (40) attempts a layup against Portageville Friday at Charleston High School. (Brent Shipman photo)

Charleston's Tennerious Ewing (40) attempts a layup against Portageville Friday at Charleston High School. (Brent Shipman photo)

"He's a streak shooter," Farmer said of Ewing. "Once he hits one, he's kind of hot and he keeps hitting them."

Portageville hit back-to-back baskets to break up Charleston's run, but by the end of the first quarter they still trailed by 23 points. The Bluejays were able to stretch that to as many as 31 points late in the second quarter and took a 61-33 lead into halftime.

At the break, Charleston already had 17 steals in the contest. Senior Jaqueles Biles led the way with five of those and junior Dontarius Sharp and Bogan contributed four each.

Bogan also took a team-leading 20 points into halftime while Ewing was close behind with 17. As a team the Bluejays shot 16 of 40 (40 percent) in the first two quarters, but more than made up for it with their defense.

"We tried to really focus in on Bogan," Irby said of the first half. "We knew Ewing could shoot as well and they have some other guys that can shoot. We knew it was going to be a tall task either way so we felt like we'd take our chances and try and hold Bogan down early and some of the others guys went off.

"I think Ewing got a lot of his in transition off our turnovers. I think we had 22 turnovers in the first half. That gives them so many more opportunities to score."

The two teams played almost even through the second half with Charleston's lead hovering around 30 points and never shrinking below 27. A couple fourth quarter 3-pointers from Bogan and another from Demarcus Sharp helped stretch the Bluejays' advantage to 33 points and ensure a turbo-clocked finish.

"They came out at halftime and pretty much played even ball," Farmer said of Portageville. "They seemed to adjust and got the ball down the court, but the damage was already done."

On a night where he was crowned homecoming king before the game, Bogan finished with a double-double of 35 points and 11 rebounds. Both were game-highs.

Bogan shot 12 of 25 from the field (48 percent), including a 5 of 9 (56 percent) effort from 3-point range. He was a perfect 6 of 6 from the free throw line and finished with four steals and three assists.

"We need him," Farmer said of Bogan, who's had two-straight 30-plus point games. "To try and win our districts we have to have him playing well and we know that."

Ewing's 17 points, all in the first half, were second on the team and freshman Demarcus Sharp pitched in eight points.

Dontarius Sharp finished the night with a game-high six steals and three assists to go with seven points.

For the Bulldogs, senior Derrick Priggel scored a team-high 10 points with freshman Ian Torrey and sophomore Chris Garmon scoring eight and seven points respectively.

"I challenged our kids at halftime to come out and compete in the second half," Irby said. "They were playing harder than us, which is really inexcusable when you're the underdog. I thought in the second half our kids came out and competed harder. They hung in there and fought and tried to do some things better, but Charleston is just so good we could never make a dent in their lead."

The win moved Charleston to 14-10 while Portageville falls to 10-12.

With only a week to go before they open the Class 3, District 2 Tournament as the top-seed, Farmer hopes his team can spend the next week showing the same fire they had against Portageville.

The Bluejays hit the road to play Cape Central on Tuesday before taking on Poplar Bluff on their regular season and home finale on Friday. Less than 24 hours after taking on the Mules, they'll play eighth-seeded Clearwater in the opening round of districts Saturday at 4:30 p.m. at Scott City High School.

"The key (this last week) is to keep our intensity up," Farmer said. "Now it's time for our schedule to pay off for us. We know we play a tough schedule with the SEMO Conference and a bunch of other good teams. So we want to keep that intensity and play as hard as it takes to play with the people in the conference and to beat those teams."

Charleston 29 19 13 13 -- 74

Portageville 6 13 14 6 -- 39

CHARLESTON -- Dontarius Sharp 7, Delfincko Bogan 35, Deonte Clemons 1, Demarcus Sharp 8, Jeremy Tucker 4, Tennerious Ewing 17, Darron Howard 2. FG 27, FT 10-11, F 18. (3-pointers: Dontarius Sharp 1, Bogan 5, Demarcus Sharp 2, Ewing 2. Fouled out: none.)

PORTAGEVILLE (39) -- Kynan Mosby 6, Jaylin Mosby 2, Chris Garmon 7, Derrick Priggel 10, Greg Hopkins 1, Ian Torrey 8. FG13, FT 11-17, F 15. (3-pointers: Kynan Mosby 1, Torrey 1. Fouled out: none.)