HUNTINGTON, W. Va. — Playing for the first time in 13 days, Tolsia ( 7-2 ) Boys squeaked by with a 57-53 victory over Grace Christian ( 3-9 ) on the road Thursday evening.
Grace Christian did not go quietly and began chipping away at the lead in the second quarter with a 18-12 advantage to trail 27-22 at halftime.
In the third quarter Tolsia pushed the lead back out to 9 points and eventually led 45-40 heading to the final stanza.
In the fourth Grace Christian used a 9-2 spurt to take the lead for the first time at 49-47 before Freshman Jesse Muncy scored 7 of the last 10 Rebel points including a 3 point play with the score tied at 53 with a minute left and Tyler Johnson sunk 1 of 2 free throws with 3 seconds left to set the final margin.
Jesse Muncy led a trio of Rebels In double figures with 21 points, Jacob Mollette hit 4 three pointers and finished with 14 points, Rob Cantrell tallied 10 points, Zach Ball chipped in with 6 points, Tyler Johnson had 4 points and Peyton Watts had 2 points.
THS hit 7 three pointers and went 2-7 from the foul line.
GCS hit 6 three pointers and went 3-3 from the line.
THS 15 12 18 12 = 57
GCS 4 18 18 13 = 53
Tolsia will return to action tonight when they host Section opponent Sherman at Rebel Arena JV at 5:45 and Varsity at 7:30.
Tolsia Head Coach Todd Maynard
COACH’S COMMENTS
“… We only won 6 games all of last year so this win puts us at 7-2 and that’s says a lot about our kids. I know they aren’t satisfied. We were off for 13 days and I’m sure they were tired of practicing against each other. We went old school in practice and back to the basics. We went hard almost every day right at each other. We have to get inside position because we are so small. I thought we did ok but not good enough.”
“… Muncy and Mollette have led us and both did a good job tonight. Muncy was special down the stretch and bailed us out. Our kids look to both of the guys.”
“… Grace Christian is a solid team. Dave Akers does a great job and I have a ton of respect for him and his program. They controlled the tempo after the first quarter and it really showed. We tried to press to speed them up and they threw right over the top of us. Give them a ton of credit.”
