DUNCAN – The Catawba Ridge boys basketball team fell in the finals of the McDonald’s Big Mac Classic dropping just their second game of the season as they fell to host school Byrnes Rebels 79-54.
Scoring hadn’t been an issue for the Copperheads in their first two games of the tournament. Catawba River scored 101 points in the first game and 89 in the second game. However, playing a host school on their home court in the finals of their host tournament, the Copperheads knew they had their hands full.
“We didn’t come out with the right juice,” said Catawba Ridge head coach Brett Childers. “They were really good. They took advantage of our mistakes.”
Byrnes quickly came out and went up 11-2 in the first three minutes of the game hitting from beyond the 3-point line on three different occasions.
Catawba Ridge was able to pull within four with the help of long-range shooting from Zyan Hager and Lance Barnes, but struggled with turnovers and getting rebounds. Byrnes got the second chance points and scores in transition to go up 23-9 after the first period.
Byrnes was hard to stop in the second quarter as they continued to push the pace. Catawba Ridge cut down on the turnovers, but the majority of scoring was done by Hager and Barnes. The two combined for 22 of the Catawba Ridge 27 points in the first half.
Defensively, the Copperheads couldn’t get stops as Byrnes continued to be effective beyond the 3-point line taking a 44-27 lead in the locker room at the half.
Byrnes quickly went up by 20 to start the third quarter. Catawba Ridge played better cutting the Rebels lead to 14 about midway through the quarter. However, rebounding was an issue for the Copperheads leading to extra opportunities for Byrnes on their end. That extra advantage had the Rebels leading 60-43 after the third quarter.
Hager was held in check in the second half after getting in foul trouble. Barnes continued to excel, but was limited as the scoring was held to a minimum from others.
Barnes led with 23 points and Hager finished with 11 points, as both were named to the All-Tournament team.
Catawba Ridge is now 10-2 on the season and will host the Copperheads Classic Dec. 28-30 next week.
Dec. 22 Roundup
The Nation Ford girls’ basketball team won 51-30 over Chesterfield to improve to 8-2 on the season in a late additional game in the Winborn Showcase at Rock Hill High.
The Catawba Ridge girls’ basketball team fell to Charlotte Country Day 53-28 to fall to 1-10 on the season in day two of the Winborn Showcase at Rock Hill High.
Mac Banks: mac@fortmillprepsports.com, @fortprep
