Cubs get first win against Eagles, nearly doubling their rival's score

Rebound king:
Cubs Zach Guibergia made nine rebounds during the Cubs first win of the season against West Valley last Tuesday. The Cubs outscored the Eagles, 62-33.

The Cubs and Eagles boys basketball teams came in hungry for a win on Tuesday night at Anderson.

Spectators from both schools filled the stands to see which of the rival teams would continue its top standing with Corning in the championship race, and which school would fall behind.

"You lose tonight and it would take a really unique set of circumstances to even get a co-championship," said Cubs coach Larry Newman.

It was Anderson who would prevail in a whopping 62-33 win over West Valley.

The team topped the Eagles in both shooting and in rebounds. And the normally powerful Eagles just weren't on their game.

"Our entire team went to the boards and we dominated the inside," said Newman. "We got a lot of second chance follow-ups and made a lot of really nice passes to the open kids inside."

Four of Anderson's players scored in the double digits.

Ty Meyer and Randy Bunyard scored 12 points apiece, Garrett McCurdy added 11 points and junior Zach Guibergia finished just short of a double-double with 10 points and nine rebounds.

For the Eagles, Donny Anondson had 10 points while Ben Bradshaw and Tyler Stevenson had seven points apiece.

Anderson took the lead early on, but it was anyone's game at the end of the first quarter with 11-9 score.

The players rush of adrenaline was apparent with aggressive defense and both teams managing to swipe each other's passes. West Valley tied it up 11-11 early in the second, but it would be downhill for the Eagles from there.

The Cubs went from hot to on fire in the third quarter. They held West Valley scoreless for the first five minutes of the second half. Coach Newman said this was partly because of a switch to a zone defense.

"I was initially intending to use it for just two or three possessions," Newman said.

But when he saw it working, he kept the team in the zone defense longer. It worked partly because West Valley players weren't playing up to their normal shooting skills.

"In the other games we've played them, they've hit that three point shot, and in this game they didn't hit it," Newman said.

And although West Valley had plenty of opportunity to score from the free-throw line, they couldn't manage many points there either. The Eagles went 7-of-19 on the foul line.

In the last minute of the game, Cubs fans started chanting "It's all over."

And it was. In their first win of three games against the Eagles, Anderson nearly doubled their rival's points scored.