The W.S. Neal varsity Eagle basketball team saw their season come to an end in the first round of the area basketball tournament Tuesday night in Evergreen at Hillcrest High School.
The Eagles lost to Monroe County 75-45 to end their season with a 4-23 overall record.
“I was really proud of how my guys played the entire year,” W.S. Neal Eagle head coach Derek Roberts said. “I tried to instill in my players that hard work will one day pay off and not to ever quit. Although we didn’t win as many games as we would have liked, we played hard and I can live with that. I give credit to Monroe County, they were much quicker than we were and they shot the play extremely well. I would like to thank the W.S. Neal fans for the their support throughout the season, although our year was not as successful as we wanted.”
Roberts and his young Eagle team were outscored by the Tigers of Monroe County 19-5 in the first quarter.
In the second quarter, Monroe County was able to increase their lead by five points over the Eagles as they outscored W.S. Neal 17-12 to lead by 19 points at the half, 36-17.
In the third quarter, Monroe County outscored W.S. Neal by 10 points, 23-13, to increase their lead to 59-30 heading into the final quarter of play.
In the fourth, Monroe County edged out the Eagles 16-15 to get the win by 30 points.
Donovan Millican led W.S. Neal in scoring with 12 points as he hit four 3s in the loss. Jalen Harrod followed with 10 points and Montrel Banks finished with six points.
Dalton Evans and Josiah Nettles both finished with five points for W.S. Neal.
W.S. Neal’s Lady Eagles will play in their class 4A area 2 tournament Thursday night in Jackson. The Lady Eagles will play Thomasville at 6 p.m.
Jackson and Monroe County will play at 7:30 p.m. with the two winners playing in the finals for the area championship Saturday at 7 p.m.
The area winner and runner-up will advance to the sub-regional round.