The Pisgah Bears posted their closest victory yet this season on Tuesday. They sure made it a nail-biter, but they managed to escape with a 81-79 victory over Smoky Mountain. Given Pisgah's advantage in MaxPreps' North Carolina basketball rankings (they are ranked 226th, while Smoky Mountain is ranked 512th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Sawyer Belue continued his habit of posting crazy stat lines, scoring 27 points along with five steals. Dominick Messer was another key contributor, scoring 14 points along with seven rebounds and three steals.
Smoky Mountain lost despite a true team effort on the offense, the best among them being Custer Prenger, who dropped a double-double on 24 points and 13 rebounds. As a matter of fact, that's the most points Prenger has scored all season. Another player making a difference was Ben Brown, who scored 24 points.
Even though they lost, Smoky Mountain smashed the offensive glass and finished the game with 14 offensive rebounds. This was only their 11th loss (out of 15 games) when they hit their own glass that hard.
Pisgah's victory bumped their record up to 11-6. As for Smoky Mountain, they are on a four-game losing streak that has dropped them down to 4-15.
Both teams will have to hit the road in their upcoming games. Pisgah will square off against Franklin at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday. As for Smoky Mountain, they will head out on the road to square off against North Henderson at 7:30 p.m. on Friday. Hopefully North Henderson focused on turnovers this week since the team gave up ten on Tuesday.
