Quarter by quarter: Pueblo East vs. Pueblo Central
Pueblo East and Pueblo Central met in the Southwest Motors Events Center on Thursday in a matchup between the South-Central League leading Eagles and the second place Wildcats. More importantly, both teams have been hovering around the No. 16 spot…
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Continue ReadingPueblo East and Pueblo Central met in the Southwest Motors Events Center on Thursday in a matchup between the South-Central League leading Eagles and the second place Wildcats.
More importantly, both teams have been hovering around the No. 16 spot in the RPI rankings, which the top 16 receive a first-round bye in the state playoffs.
Here is a quarter by quarter breakdown of Pueblo East’s 63-47 victory.
First quarter: Pueblo East leads 13-12
Darnell Kindred did what he does as the S-CL leading scorer by going to work in the paint and nailing elbow jumpers for the Eagles with six quick points in the first quarter.
Kyle Miller also flashed his shooting range with a deep 3-ball that pushed the Eagles lead to 13-5.
Pueblo Central stayed in the game thanks to a couple blocks from freshman Kadyn Betts and a 3-pointer from Steven Hemphill with three seconds left to bring the score to 13-12 Eagles.
Second quarter: Pueblo East leads 32-15
The Eagles and coach Mike Massaro hang their hat on defense and it showed in the second when Pueblo East allowed only three points: one made bucket and one made free throw.
Pueblo East’s Darnell Kindred, right, battles for a rebound with Pueblo Central’s Steven HemphillOffensively, Miller displayed how much of a game-changer he can be as he knocked down two more 3-pointers and hit 3 of 4 free throws after the halftime buzzer when Central coach Brad Ranson was called for a double technical.
And the bigs of Pueblo East continued to outplay the bigs of Pueblo Central with only five rebounds going to the Wildcats at the break, credit Jaxson Herring and Kindred for the Eagles.
Third quarter: Pueblo East leads 48-32
William Hemphill came out and knocked down two 3-pointers for the Wildcats to seemingly spark some kind of rally, but the hot hand of Miller knocked down a pair of his own.
Throw in another couple buckets from Kindred and a three from Demri Nance and the Eagles were able to continue their control of the lead.
Miller finished the quarter sitting on 22 points and five made 3-pointers.
Final: Pueblo East 63-47
Pueblo Central started to produce a rally thanks to senior Brandon Martin opening the fourth quarter up with a three.
But 13 points is the closest the Wildcats would come as the Eagles started to attack Betts and Kyle Bigley down low, who both had four fouls.
Pueblo East knocked down most of its free throws to help secure the game and continued to force the young Wildcats into turnovers.
Miller finished with 23 points for the Eagles and Kindred picked up 14. Betts had only eight for Pueblo Central, but did have five blocks and held Pueblo East big Herring to only four points. Steven Hemphill led the ‘Cats with 11 points.
The win moved Pueblo East to 5-0 in the S-CL (12-6 overall) and to 13th in the RPI rankings while Pueblo Central fell to 3-2 in S-CL (10-8 overall) and 18th in the RPI.