On Tuesday, February 1, the Chelsea Hornets hosted the Oak Mountain Eagles for the rivalry basketball game both teams had been waiting for. 

The Hornets formerly lost earlier in the season to the Eagles 75-56. This one was a much closer game but yet again the Eagles took the victory with a final score of 51-43. The Eagles now move on to 21-5 and the Hornets move on to 12-16.

During the first half the Hornets put up a good fight and stayed either in the lead or relatively close to winning throughout the majority of the first half. The second half stayed very close as well but near the end the Hornets made some little mistakes and had some turnovers resulting in them to fall just short. 

When asked how the team can prevent a close game like this from ending in a loss again, Chelsea small forward Carson Camper said, “We just need to not let up and just continue to bury them. We let them stay in the game and end up coming back and next time we  just need to put them out.”

For Oak Mountain, Evan Smith was their star player throughout this game. His versatility and aggressiveness is a major factor in the Eagles Victory. A couple other players that had a big role in the Oak Mountain win were Brady Dunn and Matthew Heiberger. These two players both had dunks off fast breaks to seal the game in the final seconds.

For Chelsea, the whole team played very well defensively and that was a primary factor in the game being as close as it was throughout all 4 quarters. Carson Camper, Paul Lanzi, and Alex Redd, all three were the primary scorers for this Hornets offense. 

Although there are still playoffs, sadly, the season is close to an end.

“It’s tough knowing that the end is almost here but we still got to go to the playoffs and I really think we can make a good run at it,” Camper said.

The Hornets will try to bring home the victory as they travel to Mountain Brook on Wednesday to play Homewood in the first round of the area tournament.