Frank Spencer Holiday Classic
East Forsyth 8 16 16 19 - 59 RJ Reynolds 19 8 19 21 - 67
East Forsyth (0-6): Will Rhodes 24, Asaiah Leggett 13, Jones 9, Reeves 5, Lyles 4, Timmons 4.
RJ Reynolds (4-5): Tobias Johnson 21, Caden Davis 19, Tyriek Leach 15, Jaben Mars 10, Murphy 2.
Second-seeded RJ Reynolds withstood a late rally from visiting East Forsyth to secure a 67-59 win in consolation round action of the Frank Spencer Holiday Classic at RJR High School Friday afternoon. The Eagles never led but kept their Central Piedmont Conference 4A rivals close throughout enroute to their sixth loss in as many starts.
East trailed by as many as 13 (23-10) early in the second quarter but cut deficit to three at the half behind the play of Brion Jones & Will Rhodes, the game’s leading scorer with 24 points. The Eagles tied the score twice in the third quarter & had two open possessions to take the lead late in the third period before RJR scored ten straight points across the quarter break to push it’s lead back to 51-40 with seven minutes remaining.
The Eagles trailed by only five (57-52) with three minutes remaining but Reynolds put the game away with consecutive baskets from Tobias Johnson, the Demons’ leading scorer with 21, to push its record to 4-5 on the season. Asaiah Leggett added 13 for East and Zyun Reeves grabbed a game-high 14 rebounds & blocked four shots in addition to his five points.
Opponents for both East Forsyth & RJ Reynolds will be determined by later re-sending from the remainder of the second-round games but the Eagles are guaranteed at 11:30a start-time for their third-round game at RJR HS on Saturday in Winston-Salem.
Submitted by Coach Bill Armour