COVINGTON, Ga. — Eastside’s senior night had a lot of celebration with the Flowery Branch Falcons in town.

Starting off the night were the Lady Eagles’ 58-39 win followed by the senior night celebration between games. However, the night had a sour ending with the Eagles suffering a 51-49 defeat. 

Lady Eagles use pressurized defense to fly by Lady Falcons

From the opening jump, Eastside instituted its full court press that resulted in numerous Flowery Branch turnovers and miscues. 

On several occasions, the Lady Eagles used those mistakes to gain their advantage. 

That is why head coach Gladys King and her players maintained the pressure all night. 

“My assessment of our full-court press was working for us last night,” King said. “I told them that at halftime so that's why we stayed in it. We struggled to score even though we were forcing turnovers.” 

Eastside’s lead continued to grow as the game progressed. 

In the first eight minutes, the Lady Eagles had a 15-10 edge that swelled to a 27-12 advantage. At the end of the third quarter, Eastside’s lead was 40-24 with the ultimate margin of victory being 19 points. 

Seven Lady Eagles cracked the score sheet. Jailyn Williams led the way with 21 points along with Aysia Spivey and Morgan Sandema’s 10 points apiece. 

But one player was especially recognized during the senior night celebration — Kaliel Kracht. 

King shared how crucial Kracht has been to the girls basketball program the past four years. 

“She understands what it's like to have more losses than wins and the hard work required to change that,” King said. “That's why she never misses practices, attends summer workouts and plays in the fall league during the offseason. She knows from experience that being in the gym can make you a better player.”

With Tuesday’s victory, Eastside improves to 13-9 overall accompanied by a third place, 7-4 Region 8-AAAAA mark. 

One game remains on the Lady Eagles’ schedule before the region tournament. They will travel to Winder-Barrow on Feb. 2. 

Falcons’ late three-pointer surge downs Eagles

Though the Eagles came out on the losing end Tuesday night, they held a 40-31 lead heading into the final frame. That was until the Falcons heated up from three-point range. 

Less than halfway through the fourth quarter, the score was tied 43-all and, courtesy of another three-pointer, Flowery Branch took a 46-43 advantage. 

Flowery Branch connected on five of its nine three pointers in Tuesday’s contest. 

That score remained until the 1:04 mark of the quarter. Then, the match turned into a free-throw battle with the teams combining for 17 attempts. 

After the attempts, plus a turnover each and a Larry Rivers’ three-pointer, Eastside had possession around half court with 1.1 seconds left trailing 52-49.

All five Eagles lined up out of bounds and, when the whistle blew, four of them ran onto the court to get open. 

Eastside attempted a three-pointer that missed off the rim as time expired to end the game. 

Head coach Dorrian Randolph explained his rationale behind the final play drawn. 

“The football player in me came out. We had to run different routes to try to get as close to the basket as we could,” Randolph said. “You only have 1.1 second so we tried to get everybody to run a route to kind of throw the defense off. I wish we had gotten a dribble, that was too far out, but that’s on me. We gotta prepare for situations like that knowing how many dribbles you got [within] one second. I’ll take that all day.”

Trebor Edwards led the Eagles with 17 points — including a halftime, buzzer-beating three- pointer — with Jason Carter and Damian Davey each scoring eight points. 

On a night celebrating the team’s seniors, Randolph recognized the impact this senior class has made on Eagles basketball in their careers.

“We’ve had some up and down years. It was refreshing to have this senior class,” Randolph said. “You definitely wanted them to go out on senior night with a bang…It was refreshing, these seniors. Proud of them and we gotta keep our heads up. This one’s going to sting. But we still got life in us. We still got one more. Regardless, we gotta fight. The region is a whole other season. And we’re going to have to approach it as such.”

Eastside’s loss drops it to 10-12 overall with a 4-7 Region 8-AAAAA record, which places it fifth in the standings. 

On Feb. 2, the Eagles will travel to Winder-Barrow to face the Bulldoggs in the regular season finale. Next up will be the region tournament hosted at Jefferson High School.