by NORTH OLMSTED, OH – The Eagles fought hard and came close but couldn’t pull off the upset, eventually falling to Normandy 52-42, dropping their record to 0-22 to close the regular season. They closed it to as close as 5 in the fourth quarter but couldn’t pull it off.
The Normandy Invaders were led by the hot hand of Alex Rivera who finished with 26, exactly half of his teams points tonight. Gavin Clark had 7 while both Landon Holmes and Damir Smith finished with 5. Logan Guadalupe scored 4 while Jacob Chupa finished the Invader scoring with 3.
The Eagles comeback attempt was led by Dom Martin with 15 and Anthony D’Alessandro with 11. Jake Perkins scored 7 while AJ Ryant had 6 and Chuck Shuck finished with 3. Perkins, Shuck and Ryant have now played their final regular season game as Eagles.
After the Eagles jumped out to a quick 8-5 lead, the Invaders came storming back in the second portion of the opening quarter as they went on a 7-0 run to capture a 12-8 lead. From there the Invaders continued to pour it on with a commanding 20-12 lead after one. A big reason for the 20-point quarter was the solid performance by Rivera with 9 in the frame.
Neither team could do much of anything in the second quarter as the Eagle defense held the Invaders to just one field goal the entire quarter. The Eagles weren’t much better, only scoring 8 points but managed to cut into the lead 25-20 by the break.
The third quarter became extremely interesting as hustle plays by D’Alessandro led to a 4-0 run at one point, cutting the lead to 32-28 at the four-minute mark. A few minutes later, an inside move by Martin sliced the lead down to 3 at 35-32. A Chuba three brought it back out to 38-32 as we headed to the fourth.
Rivera came out gunning in the fourth and the Invaders quickly built the lead out to double digits at 43-34 as the Eagles couldn’t stop him. They did manage to crawl back again and cut it to 45-40 with two minutes to play, until ultimately falling 52-42.
Meanwhile the Eagles JV team closed out their season with a win tonight. They managed to come from behind as they trailed by 17 at half. They were led by young Matthew McKee with 26 points, 16 boards and 7 assists in the thrilling win.
