Last Thursday, the Chancellors of St. Thomas More traveled to take on the varsity girls and boys teams at RMA. As this was the last conference matchup for both teams, tensions were running high. A victory for the Eagles was imperative in order for the varsity boys to become Conference Champions.

The Lady Eagles were the first to play on Thursday, and fought hard against the Chancellors, with a final score of 40-42. The Eagles fought hard during both halves, but the second half was definitely their strongest because they pressed more. Stats from Thursday night prove this, showing that the Lady Eagles scored 17 points in the first half and 23 in the second. Throughout the game, the Eagles fought hard, which resulted in injuries for two of the team’s top players, junior Julia High and senior Katie Gutshall. High walked away from the game with a sprained ankle and Gutshall with intense back pain that she has been struggling with throughout the season. With another senior, Hollie Tyndall, out due to an ankle injury, this is not good news for the Eagles. Although Gutshall was injured, she was still the top scorer of the night, racking up 16 of the 40 points that the Eagles had. Her strength at the three point line showed on Thursday, when she scored three 3 pointers. Senior Allison Barnes followed close behind with 9 points and showed her strength under the basket. Sophomore Madison Glover also had good shots under the basket, scoring 8 points for the Eagles and is a player to watch that shows a promising future. It is also worth noting Julia High’s layup during the last 30 seconds of the fourth quarter that brought the Eagles to the final score of 40-42. The hard fought loss was a close one for the Lady Eagles, who gave it their all.

The varsity boys stormed the court after the girls, ready to prove themselves as potential Conference Champions. The game began in a bit of an unusual way, the boys came out strong for the first half and followed this with a weaker second half, which usually occurs the other way around for the team. Junior A.J. Mitchell was the top scorer on Thursday night, scoring 24 points who was followed by sophomore Elijah McCadden who added 19 points and 9 assists and was being scouted by assistant coach, Randolph Childress, of Wake Forest University. Senior Kyle Holland followed with 9 points and 7 rebounds. As a whole, the Eagles were strong defensively and the Chancellors had a weak offense, which led to a 66-53 victory for the Eagles. This big win of the last conference game made the varsity boys the first seed of the Conference Tournament and completed their second straight undefeated conference season.

On Tuesday, February 9th, come out and support the varsity girls and boys teams in the first game of the Conference CIC Tournament. Games begin at 6:30 PM!