McCreary Central falls to Eastern in Jaguar Classic
By Steve LeMaster
stevelemastersports@yahoo.com
NICHOLASVILLE – McCreary Central suffered its fourth straight loss on road at East Jessamine High School over the weekend, Playing on a neutral floor, Eastern, an opponent out of Louisville, pulled away to defeat the Raiders 88-63 in the Jaguars Classic on Saturday.
The victory allowed Eastern to return to the win column following three straight losses.
With the loss, McCreary Central slipped to 6-12.
Eastern improved to 7-11 with the win.
Productive Eastern took control of the game and forced the Raiders to play from behind.
Eastern shot 64.2 percent (34-of-53) from the field. The Eagles were 15-of-28 (53.6 percent) from 3-point range, connecting on over half of their attempts taken beyond the arc.
Eastern shot 62.5 percent (5-of-8) from the free throw line.
Dominating inside, Eastern outrebounded McCreary Central 31-19.
Eastern used a balanced scoring effort to separate itself from the Raiders. Five different Eastern players reached double figures in the scoring column.
Myles Goodrich and Jacob Robinson led Eastern with 15 points apiece. Eastern’s balanced attack featured Nick Sparks pushing in 13 points, Isaiah Ross contributing 12 points and Ben Craig adding 11 points.
Four other Eastern players, including Ethan Coury, who tossed in nine points, provided scoring for the Eagles.
McCreary Central shot 41.2 percent (21-of-51) from the field. The Raiders were 5-of-14 (35.7 percent) from 3-point range.
McCreary Central shot 76.2 percent (16-of-21) from the free throw line.
Hunter Jones led McCreary Central with 17 points.
Nick Longmire was the only other McCreary Central player to reach double figures, scoring 10 points.
Brandon Troxell barely missed reaching double figures for the Raiders, delivering nine points.
Ryan Jones tossed in eight points while John Cash accounted for six points in the Raiders’ setback.
The other individual scorers for McCreary Central were Blake Corder (four points), Caleb Cox (four points), Evan Kidd (three points) and Derrick Paige (two points).
