Purple Eagles oust Centaurs in B1 opener

By Mike Wertman, Sports Writer Posted 21 February 2017 at 9:25 pm

Photos by Cheryl Wertman – Albion’s Lamar Chambers goes in for a layup against City Honors defender Sabastian Flewellyn during the host Purple Eagles Class B1 sectional victory over the Centaurs this evening.

Albion’s Chase Hall puts up a shot over City Honors defender Kevion Taylor.

Turning back a fourth quarter challenge, No. 12 seed Albion bested visiting No. 13 City Honors 63-52 this evening in the opening round of the Section VI Class B1 boys basketball tournament.

Up by as many as 21 points in the third period, Albion saw City Honors rally back to within seven late in the final period.

However, the Purple Eagles countered with two free throws and a three point play by Kory Reynolds and a layup by Jaquess Harrison to close out the victory and advance to a Wednesday pre quarterfinal round contest at No. 5 Dunkirk.

Lamar Chambers finished with 15 and Reynolds 13 to lead the Albion offense as Harrison and Chase Hall both had 8, Shyheim Jakes 5, Bryce Pritchard 4, Tommy Mattison and Meach Gardner 3 and Liam Ward and Jacob Buzard 2.

Jaden Slaughter took game high honors with 21 and Amir Radford added 12 for City Honors.

Trailing 11-10 at the end of a sea-saw first quarter, which featured five lead changes, Albion put together a big 23-7 second period scoring surge to rally into the lead for good.

Threes by Chambers, Harrison, Pritchard and Jakes highlighted that decisive uprising which also included a pair of layups by Chambers along with jumpers by Gardner and Hall as the Purple Eagles opened up a 15 point, 33-18, half-time advantage.

Back-to-back threes by Mattison and Chambers to open the third period extended the Purple Eagles advantage to 21, 39-18.

Two more threes, by Chambers and Harrison, kept Albion up by 14, 49-35, at the three-quarter mark.

However, City Honors came battling back down the stretch. Getting 9 points from Slaughter, the Centaurs closed to within seven three times in the final two and a half minutes, ar 55-48, 57-50 and 59-52, but could get no closer.

The Purple Eagles finally put a lock on the victory as Reynolds made two free throws and a three-point play and Harrison a layup off a steal.