Eagles get ready to host Southern Boone Classic

The Eagles boys and girls basketball teams will take two very different paths to hosting next week’s Southern Boone Classic basketball tournament.

The Classic will begin on Monday with the Eagles girls taking on No. 3 seed Troy at 7:30 p.m. The boys, seeded second, will play on Tuesday at 7:30 vs Boonville.

After Tuesday’s 56-46 overtime loss to Blair Oaks, the Eagles boys took Wednesday off and don’t play again until their first-round Classic game. It is likely a good move that will allow the SoBoCo players to re-fill their tanks after fading late in the loss to the Falcons and not scoring at all in the 5-minute overtime.

The Eagles started on fire and raced out to a 20-8 first quarter lead on the Falcons, however, Blair Oaks began to find their shooting range and came back to within 27-23 at halftime.

The second half was a back-and-forth game with the Eagles struggling to find any momentum and unable to penetrate inside against the taller Falcons defenders.

Both teams had the opportunity to break a 46-46 tie in the final seconds, however, both teams turned the ball over under pressure from the defense. In the OT, the Falcons the Eagles missed shots and Martin hit a 3-pointer. As the Eagles could not score, they were forced to foul the Falcons and Blair Oaks put the game on ice from the free throw line.

Blair Oaks’ Trent Martin did most of the damage to the Eagles on the Falcons offensive end, scoring 29-points, nearly all of it from the 3-point line.

Sam Stichnote led the Eagles with 14 points, Rece Gilmore had 13 points and Tyson Smith had 9 points.

The Eagles girls, showing strong improvement in the past two weeks, will face a Falcons team tonight that they nearly defeated in the conference tournament. The Eagles will then travel to Strafford for a Saturday game before playing on Monday night.