Boyd opens season with split
Boyd Christian’s middle school basketball teams kicked off their season at home Monday night, hosting Murfreesboro’s Middle Tennessee Christian School.
The home squads split the night’s games, with the Lady Broncos taking a 37-20 win while the boys fell in a 41-30 nail-biter.
In girls’ action, Boyd jumped on the Lady Cougars quickly, rolling off six unanswered points to start the game and building a 12-2 lead in the first quarter thanks to back-to-back buckets from Jenna Davis and a putback by Emily Newby.
MTCS picked up some momentum near the end of the first, scoring three straight baskets to end the period down 12-8, but Boyd turned up its defensive pressure in the second quarter, shutting out its guests to go into the halftime locker room up 20-8.
Newby came out firing in the third quarter, scoring back-to-back buckets, and a big 3-pointer from Lyndsey King with 11 seconds left helped Boyd close out the third with a comfortable 31-18 lead.
The action slowed somewhat in the fourth, as Boyd held MTCS to no field goals and got four points from Davis and another basket from King. The Lady Cougars connected on two of their seven free-throw attempts in the final period, as Boyd cruised to the 17-point win.
King and Davis finished with 11 points each to lead the way for Boyd, while Newby had 10, including six in the third quarter, and Courtney Hard chipped in five.
Lindsey Lee led MTCS with eight points, while Callie Noblen had six, Rachel Brangenberg netted three, Amy Mullins had two and Betsy McMahan scored one.
Cougars 41,
Broncos 30
The boys game, which opened Monday’s doubleheader, was a close contest through much of the first three quarters. But the Cougars pulled away late, building a double-digit lead in the fourth on the way to the win.
MTCS used strong outside shooting to build an early lead, going up 9-4 behind a pair of 3-pointers by David Hunzieker and another from Todd Wilson. But Boyd held its own, working the ball inside to Andrew King and Ryan Phillips, and ended the quarter trailing just 9-8 after a pair of Jonathan Hagar free throws.
Phillips gave Boyd a 10-9 lead with a pair of free throws early in the second, and the teams swapped basket for basket throughout the quarter, which ended with Boyd clinging to a 15-13 lead.
The Broncos kept their edge for much of the third quarter, but the Cougars went ahead for good late on a basket from Zach Preston, and closed the period with a 26-19 edge.
Boyd turned to Andrew King to keep them in the contest in the fourth, and although he responded with eight fourth-quarter points, the Broncos were never able to get closer than six points as MTCS held on for the victory.
King finished with 17 points to lead all scorers, while Hagar had five. Ben Biles and Phillips had three apiece, and David Watson chipped in two.
The Cougars were led by Hunzieker’s 13 points, with Preston adding eight. Josh Crenshaw had seven points, Sammie Harris had five, Wilson netted four, and Ben Tucker and Alden Davenport scored two each.
The Broncos and Lady Broncos return to action Thursday, when they travel to Spencer.