South Cobb Holds On For 87-82 Win Over Riverwood, Remain Game Back Of Marist
On Tuesday, the South Cobb Eagles boys basketball team hosted the Riverwood Raiders in a pivotal region matchup as both team s game into the night with one loss in region play, trailing the region leader, Marist by one game in the standings. With both teams looking to avoid falling two games back, as expected, South Cobb and Riverwood battled through all four quarters before a winner would eventually be decided.
Thanks to a nine point first quarter performance by Dylan Steinfeld (17 points), the Raiders would outscore the Eagles by five points in the period as they ended the opening period of play with a 22-16 lead. South Cobb would return the favor in the second quarter as they would outscore Riverwood 27-15 behind 14 points in the quarter by Jermaine Freeman (game high 26 pts) and lead 43-37 at the half. The Raiders would in turn own the third period of play as J.R. Leonard would drop 12 points in the period and Riverwood would outscore South Cobb 31-27, however the Eagles maintained a 70-68 lead.
And in the fourth quarter, the Eagles would hold off the Raiders as they outscored them 17-14 in the period and go on to pick up the 87-82 win. Along with Freeman’s 26 points, the Eagles would get 20 points from both Josh Miles and Dante Harrison in the win. “Riverwood’s a very good team. They were scrappy, but our boys showed a lot of resilience tonight,” South Cobb head coach, Hollis Bethea said following the win as he reflected on the pace of the game. “We were up and down a little bit, we got the stops we needed and we scored the baskets we needed, so real proud of the guys, Bethea said.
With the win, South Cobb improved to 3-1 in the region standings and remain a game back of Marist, who they lost to back in mid-December and host on January 27th and Bethea noted that as the Eagles prepare for a stretch of region contest, they will be “battle tested” and will have an opportunity to execute areas they have worked on. “We’ll get a chance to work some situations out, work on some things because most of these region games are going to be tight,” Bethea added.
