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Eddy leads GW past Wildcats, 54-49
by Paul Adkins
Sports Editor
Dec 30, 2012 | 1317 views | 0 0 comments | 5 5 recommendations | email to a friend | print
<p>Logan&#8217;s T.J. Tomblin (50) and Worm Street fight for a rebound in Friday&#8217;s George Washington game.</p>

Logan’s T.J. Tomblin (50) and Worm Street fight for a rebound in Friday’s George Washington game.

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Friday night’s scoreboard showed George Washington beating the Logan High School basketball team 54-49 on Friday night at Logan’s Willie Akers Arena.

But really it was one player who beat the Wildcats.

Luke Eddy.

Eddy, a senior guard, poured in 32 points and hit on 15-of-16 free throws, including 9-of-10 in the final five minutes of the game, as the Patriots improved to 3-2 on the season.

Logan dropped to 2-4 with the loss.

Wildcats’ coach Mark Hatcher said Eddy was a tough player to handle. Logan toughened up its defense in the third quarter, cutting a 33-22 halftime deficit to 43-41 after three and denied Eddy the ball.

But in the fourth, George Washington got the ball back into Eddy’s hands as the Patriots did in the opening period. Eddy finished with a triple-double as he also hauled down 10 rebounds and handed out 10 assists.

“He’s a Division I player,” Hatcher said of Eddy. “When he got his hands on the ball he made a lot of good things happen. We did a really good job of trying to keep the ball out of his hands for about three quarters. He only had one field goal in the second half. I thought we did a lot better job on him.”

Down two points after three, the Wildcats made a charge in the fourth, tying it up at 43 with 7:38 left on a slashing drive to the lane by A.J. Reynolds.

Logan took its first lead of the ballgame at 45-43 with a C.J. Williams putback with 7:01 to go.

The Cats’ last lead of the night was 47-45 with 6:24 left on a pair of Worm Street free throws.

But then Eddy and the Patriots took charge of the game.

Two Eddy free throws tied it at 47 and a split from the foul line by Eddy with 4:12 left put the Patriots ahead 48-47. Two more charity tosses by Eddy with 1:20 remaining made it a 50-47 game.

Logan then had possession with a chance to tie it on a 3-pointer or pull to within one with a quick bucket. However, the Wildcats could not get a good look at the basket and had to foul.

George Washington had an opportunity to put the game away but Robert Kay bricked two free throws with 33.7 seconds left and clanged two more off the rim with 30.6 ticks remaining to keep Logan in the game.

Logan, though, missed a shot on the other end and Eddy was fouled with 15.4 seconds to go. Eddy was then money at the foul line as he swished two more foul shots to all but put the game away at 52-47.

Reynolds then scored a quick hoop on a drive to the lane to make it 52-49 with 10 seconds left, keeping Logan’s hopes alive.

But Eddy quickly dashed those hopes as George Washington got him the ball on the inbounds pass and was fouled. He netted two more free throws to set the final score at 54-49.

Despite the loss, the Wildcats could take away some positives from the game.

The first positive was Chase Preston, who had his career breakout game with 15 points. The 5-10 sophomore guard canned four 3-pointers on the night. Two of those came in the third quarter as Logan outscored GW 19-10 and ate away at the Patriots’ lead.

“We grew up tonight and I think that we learned a lot tonight,” Hatcher said. “We had some other guys step up. Chase Preston did a great job and hit some big shots for us. We ran our offenses really well for the most part but we still made some little mistakes that really cost us at the end. I was pretty pleased with it but it seems that we just can’t get to the foul line. We’ll just keep trying.”

Another bright spot was Reynolds, who finished with 13 points. Street also broke into double digits in scoring with 10 points.

Minnick had five points for the game, while Zak Miller hit a 3-pointer. Williams and T.J. Tomblin had two points each. Tomblin, a 6-10 senior center, played in his first game of the season. He had been injured during the football season where he was a starting lineman for the Wildcats.

Austin Breeden also hit double digits for the Patriots with 10 points.

GW was 19-for-25 from the free throw line for the game for 76 percent. The Patriots’ percentage would have been better had it not been for Kay’s “foul” shooting as he was 0-for-5 from the charity stripe.

Logan was 8-for-12 from the line.

GW had jumped on top 8-2 early on after a 15-foot jumper by Eddy.

The lead expanded to 16-7 after a Breeden three-point play.

Eddy’s fade away 3-pointer with two ticks left put the Patriots ahead 22-12 after one quarter.

George Washington led by as many as 15 at 27-12 in the second.

Preston, however, banked in a 3-pointer from the corner to make it 27-15. Preston then drilled another 3 to trim the margin to 29-18.

Logan trailed by 11 at the break and rallied in the third.

Back-to-back 3s by Preston cut the deficit to 35-28 with 5:52 to go, forcing the Patriots to call timeout.

With 2:52 left, Preston nailed another big shot — this one on a 17-foot pull-up jumper — to make it 39-36.

GW’s Dominik King, however, countered with nifty reverse baseline scoop off the window to push the lead to 41-36.

Logan pulled to within 43-41 with nine seconds left with a Reynolds drive to the paint.

The Wildcats made a game of it late but it turned out to be not enough.

It’s back to the drawing board for Logan, which doesn’t play again until Jan. 5 at Charleston Catholic.

“We’ve got a week,” Hatcher said. “It’s a tough place to play and they will probably pack it out. Usually, we’re used to playing in front of big crowds but not this year. We’ll go up there and play in front of their big crowd.”

Logan won Friday night’s JV game over George Washington, 43-39.



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