The Shadow
The Oxford Emory Eagles visited the Armory in Clifton Forge this past Saturday where the snuck by the Mountain Gateway Roadrunners 72-66.
After a first half where both teams traded baskets through the first several minutes, it was the Roadrunners who started commanding the game towards the middle of the first half as the team built a seven point lead at 18-11.
The Eagles though within the matter of minutes would come right back with seven straight points to tie the game.
With seven minutes remaining in the first half, the Eagles started building momentum within a three-minute span, the Roadrunners went on a scoring run of their own with nine straight to retake the lead at a then game-high nine point lead, 27-18.
As the Roadrunners were building the lead, the team had several opportunities to push the lead to double digits. By not doing so, the Eagles found an opening where they spent the final six minutes of the half by outscoring the Roadrunners 13-6 the rest of the way as the Eagles closed the gap to two point by the end of the first half.
The Roadrunners had trailed in the first half for only the first few minutes of the game, while leading or were tied during the remaining 17 minutes of the first half.
In the second half with just over 14 minutes remaining, the Eagles grabbed their first lead at 43-41 since the beginning of the game when they led 5-2.
After taking their first lead in over 20 minutes, the Eagles went on a 9-2 scoring run to take their largest lead of the game at 50-43.
With under nine minutes left to go, the Roadrunners started gaining momentum and turned the tides to take a 51-50 lead after scoring eight straight points which was capped off by a Jaquan Dembo three-pointer.
The Roadrunners lead would be short-lived as the Eagles would outscore the Roadrunners 9-2 during a two and a half minute stretch as they took a 59-53 lead.
Trailing 66-60 with under a minute remaining, Donovan Amason knocked down a big three-pointer to bring the game within one possession.
As the game was winding down, Isaac Snyder with under 30 seconds left put the Eagles up 68-63.
On the ensuing inbounds pass, Ryan Jim stole the ball and passed it off to Sean Osei who was fouled as he tried to run the game clock down.
Osei would make both free-throws to give the Eagles a 68-63 lead.
With only seconds remaining, Kim would sink two more free-throws for the Eagles which sealed the victory.
Snyder led all scorers with a game-high 23 points including a double-double performance as he brought down 11 rebounds. Snyder was one of three Eagles in double figures scoring as Nick Hardin scored 15, while Justin Whitening added 13.
The Roadrunners also had three player in double figures scoring. Arnason led the team with a team-high 22 points, while Dembo scored 16, and Tyriq Brown added 15. Arnason and Dembo each knocked down four three-pointers.
The Roadrunners home game on Sunday against Southside Community College was cancelled. The Roadrunners will be on the road this evening at Southern Virginia University playing against their JV team.
Team 1 2 Ttl
Eagles 31 41 72
MGCC 33 33 66
Eagles Team Stats
Player Pts Reb Ast Stl
Whitening 13 8 4 0
Osei 3 3 0 0
Walker 7 5 4 7
Hardin 15 3 2 2
Snyder 23 11 1 0
Kim 9 2 2 3
Greene 2 1 0 1
Anton 0 3 0 0
Total 72 36 16 13
Roadrunners Team Stats
Player Pts Reb Ast Stl
Korbakes 5 5 0 1
Bowens 4 12 1 2
Dembo 16 2 2 2
Brown 15 4 5 3
Arnason 22 8 2 2
Shirley 4 1 0 0
Fleming 0 1 0 0
Total 66 33 10 10
