The 2013-14 basketball season only got off to a winning start for one W.S. Neal basketball team Tuesday at home as the varsity boys were the lone Eagle team to come away with a win against the Red Level Tigers.
The varsity boys, under first year head coach Anthony Hayes, defeated Red Level 47-36 to start the year with a 1-0 record.
“The kids played hard,” Hayes said. “I thought Red Level and us played hard. We are a young bunch. We are going lose with them. We are going to win with them. We are just going to fight. I am really proud of them. We called a timeout and I told them we are going to do it with defense. Toward the end of the game, they started to buy into it a little bit. They may have been the difference.”
The B-team Eagles fell to Red Level 34-31 to begin their season 0-1 while the Lady Eagles dropped a 44-37 loss under first year head coach Buddy Powell.
“We played really hard,” Powell said. “The other team did too. We just ran out of gas there at the end. I was proud, really proud of them though. We are going to get better.”
W.S. Neal will be back in action at home (W.S. Neal Middle School) against St. Luke’s Episcopal. Game time is set to begin at 5 p.m. with the B-teams playing followed by the girls and then varsity boys.
W.S. Neal will also take on Pensacola Christian Academy Monday at home. Game times are set for 4:30 p.m.

Red Level 34, WSN B-team 31
A furious rally by the W.S. Neal B-team Eagles came up short Tuesday at home as they dropped their season opener by three points to Red Level 34-31.
Trailing 6-0 to start the game, W.S. Neal faced a 9-2 deficit after the first quarter. From there, W.S. Neal outscored Red Level 9-7 in the second quarter to cut the Red Level lead to 16-11 at the half.
In the third quarter, W.S. Neal started the second half out on a 5-0 run to tie the game at 16-all. W.S. Neal continued their offensive scoring in the third quarter as they held a 9-4 advantage to tie the game at 20-20 heading into the fourth.
In the fourth quarter, W.S. Neal trailed by as many as four points in the quarter before tying the game at 31 with 35.8 seconds left in the game. Red Level would go 3-for-4 from the free throw line to take a 34-31 lead with 10.4 seconds left in the game and took the win after an Eagle 3-pointer at the end of the game fell short.
Darius Tolbert led W.S. Neal with 14 points while Peyton Salter had six. Tray-D Jones finished with three points while Keaton Yuhasz, Alex O’Keane, Josh McMillan and DaQuain Kiser all had two points each.
W.S. Neal was 7-for-12 from the free throw line in the loss while Red Level was 12-for-29.

Red Level 44, WSN Lady Eagles 37
Trailing 38-36 with 3:06 left in the game, the W.S. Neal Lady Eagles fell to a 6-0 run by Red Level and was outscored 6-1 in the final minutes to take a 44-37 loss to Red Level in their season opener.
The Lady Eagles opened the game with a lot of energy as they grabbed an 8-2 lead in the first quarter after falling behind 2-0 early. The Lady Eagles went on to lead Red Level 11-8 after one quarter. In the second quarter, W.S. Neal increased their lead to 18-12 at the half after they outscored Red Level 7-4 in the quarter.
In the second half, Red Level rallied as they outscored W.S. Neal 14-8 in the third quarter to tie the game at 26 heading into the fourth.
In the fourth, Red Level ended the game on an 18-11 scoring advantage to defeat W.S. Neal by seven.
KeKe Floyd and Mariah Davis led the Lady Eagles in the loss as the duo finished in double figures with 13 and 10 points respectively.
Jasmine Crook added five points while Khadijah Barton finished with four points. Alexis Morrison chipped in three points while Taylor Burns and Alyssa English both had one point each.
W.S. Neal was 13-for-23 from the free throw line in the loss while Red Level was 10-for-28.

WSN varsity Eagles 47, Red Level 36
Just when it looked like Red Level was going to get the trifecta sweep over W.S. Neal’s teams, the varsity Eagles saved the day with a 47-36 win. The win came courtesy of a 10-0 run by the Eagles to end the game.
Red Level began the game on a 6-0 run before a 7-0 run by the Eagles to end the first quarter gave them a 7-6 lead after one quarter of play. W.S. Neal’s TyShawn Davis hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer to give W.S. Neal the one-point lead. Davis led W.S. Neal in the win with 14 points.
In the second quarter, it was another 7-0 run for W.S. Neal that turned an 11-8 deficit with 6:04 left in the half into a 15-11 lead with 3:24 left to play in the quarter. Red Level would end the quarter on a 4-0 run to tie the game at 15-all heading into the half.
In the third quarter, the two teams matched up evenly again as both scored 13 points each to go into the final quarter of play tied at 28.
In the final quarter of play, Red Level built a 35-33 lead with 6:12 left in the game. From there, W.S. Neal led the Tigers by a score of 37-36 with 3:08 left in the game.
That is when the Eagles used a 10-0 run to end the game and put it away and seal the 11-point win.
Along with Davis’ 14 points, Malcolm Hawthorne added 12 points and Trevor Burns had nine. Mike Williams chipped in six points while Dalton Shell had four and D.J. Hodges had two.
W.S. Neal was 9-for-17 from the free throw line in the win while Red Level shot 18-for-28.