Rebels Unable to Catch Tigers

This past Saturday, the Adairsville Tigers traveled to take on the Fannin Rebels to play their last games of the tournament at the Mountaintop Holiday Classic. Both teams were coming from devastatingly close losses the day before with the Rebels losing to the Bobcats by four and Adairsville losing to Christian Heritage by one. Each team came ready to walk away with the third place trophy.

 

Starting off the game, Adairsville relied on outside shots while the Rebels relied on inside passes. This allowed Rebel post, Joel Kinser, to contribute four points for his team. Other posts for Fannin, Nathaniel Garrison and Ryan Beavers, also added onto the score down low. Garrsion scored three points while Beavers put two more on the board for the Rebels. At the end of the first quarter, the score was 12-11 with Adairsville in the lead.

 

With the second quarter starting, Adairsville found a new way to do most of their damage. The Tigers started to see opportunities for wide open layups and took them. Rebel, Chandler Kendall, led Fannin in scoring with eight points. Another Rebel, Payton Holt, was right behind Kendall with seven points. The Adairsville Tigers wrapped up the second quarter with a five point lead over the Rebels with a score of 29-24.

 

With the Tigers high pressure defense it made it hard for the Rebels to get to the basket, but not impossible. Rebel, Joe Satchell, scored five points for Fannin with his determination to score. Cohutta Hyde added two points on the board for the Rebels with his endless hustle. As soon as Jack Gobble saw the slightest slack in the Tiger’s defense, he made an outside shot, contributing two more points for the Rebels. The Tigers extended their lead over the Rebels at the end of the third quarter with the score at 41-33.

 

As soon as the fourth quarter began, the Rebels score strayed farther and farther from the Tigers. This is when Gabe Buchanan and Jalen Ingram came off the bench to play. The underclassmen each scored two points for the Rebels by putting their all into the game. The Fannin Rebels were unable to catch up the the Adairsville Tigers who ran away with a 56-37 win, putting them in third place of the tournament

 

After the game, the awards for All Tournament Players were handed out. The Fannin Rebels selected for this were Ryan Beavers, Payton Holt, and Chandler Kendall.

 

When asking Rebel head coach Scott Eggleston his thoughts on his teams overall performance, he stated, “Offensively, we got better. We have struggled all year scoring. During this tournament we have shot three’s better, we’ve shot at a higher field goal percentage, everyone is feeling more confident about shooting the ball, and we’ve played overall good defense.”

 

Coach Eggleston then shared players whose performances really stuck out to him with the FYN sports team. “Joe satchell started to shoot the ball well and got after it on defense. Chandler Kendall and Payton Holt came out of their slumps and started to shoot the ball well. Ryan Beavers played excellent. He really hit the boards well and scored a lot of points for us. Those four had a really good weekend. Joel Kinser is back from his concussion and he played well on the block and so did Nathaniel Garrison. We had some players with not as much experience come off the bench and play well. The main guys we have been relying on have really improved from before Christmas and we are excited for the next half of the year.”

 

Fannin’s loss to Adairsville puts their overall record at 3-12 while the Tigers stand at 6-7. Catch the Rebels next game on January 5 at 8:30 as they take on GAC at home!