Blythewood’s Keith Matthews (1) muscles his way to the hoop. (Photo/Kristy Kimball Massey)
BLYTHEWOOD (Dec. 7, 2016) – After a tough loss to arch rival Westwood last Friday, Blythewood made good use of its matchup against Midland Valley Tuesday night.
The Bengals shook off a 60-57 defeat to the Redhawks with a 73-55 drubbing of the Mustangs at Blythewood.
“They had some good athletes, they had some good players,” Blythewood head coach Zeke Washington said of the Vikings. “What we were trying to do was to get our act together and find ourselves.”
Blythewood found solid efforts from several players, either in scoring or under the nets.
Robert Braswell scored 25 points, Keith Matthews added 17 and Khalil Shakir-Harris put up 14 to lead Blythewood (2-1). Braswell and Matthews combined for 16 rebounds.
The Bengals jumped out to a 14-7 lead when Kameron Riley dished to Shakir-Harris, who put in a layup at the first quarter buzzer.
Blythewood kept drawing fouls in the lane in the second quarter, and used impeccable free-throw shooting to jack up its lead on the Mustangs. The Bengals sank 14 of 15 free throws in that quarter to move to a 39-26 advantage at the half.
Blythewood’s hot shooting at the free-throw line likely snuffed any Midland Valley rally before it could start.
The Mustangs were down 28-13 midway through the second, but Anthony Ray then sank three straight 3-pointers and had a basket to cut the Bengals lead to 30-24 with 2:15 left.
That was as close as Midland Valley could get back in the game. The Bengals finished off the half with a 9-2 run.
Both teams exchanged shot for shot in an up-tempo third quarter, but the Mustangs couldn’t stage a comeback.
When Ray fouled out early in the fourth quarter, the Bengals poured it on with a 16-4 run to take a 71-46 lead with just over three minutes left in the game.
Even though the Bengals made light work of the Vikings, Washington noted that the season was still early, and that he’s still trying to find the right combination of players to put on the court at any given time.
“We still have a lot of things to work on,” Washington said. “It’s going to take some time to get on the same page.”
Blythewood 73, Midland Valley 55
MV: 7-19-16-13 – 55
BHS: 14-25-16-18 – 73
Midland Valley
Anthony Ray 23, Wade 9, Johnson 8, Brown 8, S. Ray 3, Millhouse 2, Mosley 2.
Blythewood
Robert Braswell 25, Keith Matthews 17, Khalil Shakir-Harris 14, Breeland 6, Jackson 4, Riley 4, Dawkins 3.
