At the end of the first quarter of Feb. 4’s game, fans for both Magnolia and Tyler Consolidated knew this game was going to be much different than the rivals’ previous matchup.

With less than a second remaining in the first, Andrew Robinson took an inbounds pass near half-court and immediately shot the ball which proceeded to go through the hoop and tie the game at 17-17 as the buzzer sounded. It capped an eight point quarter for him.

Seemingly it gave Magnolia the momentum shift as they took a 27-19 advantage early in the second quarter, but the Silver Knights upped their game and gave Magnolia all they could handle.

It was at that point that Tyler Consolidated used a 17-4 run to shock the hosts. Dustin Snider’s three brought the Knights within one at 27-26. That was followed by treys from Aaron Estep and Tyler Brown. The outside shots were balanced by Zack Minger, Alex Jones, and Cory Lowe who also scored deuce hoops and helped provide a 36-31 lead at the break for the Knights.

The Blue Eagles were able to bounce back and stayed close with the Knights for most of the third thanks to Jared Blatt who scored nine points during that time. Still, the Silver Knights held a 49-47 lead.

That’s when Jordan Moore took over.

The outside shooter, who came off the bench, boosted the Eagles’ offense with a three with 1:27 left in the third to give Magnolia the lead once again. If that was the spark, then he started the fire with two more bonus bombs immediately after that and helped give the Blue Eagles a 57-51 lead with one quarter remaining.

The final eight minutes started just like the third ended. Moore hit his fourth trey of the evening and gave his team a 60-51 lead.

Tyler Consolidated pushed back but would only get as close as four after Zach Perkey scored on a layup to make it 64-60.

Blatt was able to act as a proverbial closer, scoring four baskets in the quarter while the rest of his team shot 14 of 21 from the free-throw line down the stretch to preserve the 90-75 win.

“It was a wake-up call. I give Tyler a lot of credit. Coach Kimble did an excellent job of having them prepared,” said Tallman. “They played hard. They played their guts out. We know now that they’re a legitimate contender. You can see some of their scores and they’re shooting the ball well. It was really good for us to face that because when you blow someone out the first game, it’s really hard to get motivated. Now we know how good they are. We just have to keep preparing because we might meet them in the tournament later on.”

Leading the way for the Silver Knights were Snider with 23 points and Perkey with 22 points, 11 rebounds, and five assists.

Minger finished with nine, Brown scored seven, Lowe and Estep ended with six, and Jones scored two.

For Magnolia, Blatt tied Snider for game high honors with 23 points, 17 of which came in the second half. Jon Rine had was the second-leading scorer for the Big Blue with 18. Moore’s 16 all came in the second half. Robinson was the fourth and final Eagle in double figures with 13.

Rounding out Magnolia’s scoring were Matt Sapp with seven, Andy Huggins with six, Josh Yost with five, and Traeh Keller with two.

Before playing Magnolia, Tyler Consolidated tuned up by playing John Marshall. The Monarchs impressed many by unleashing their offensive attack that have left many opponents inundated.

Things were no different as John Marshall won easily by a score of 97-58.

The Silver Knights were only down 16 at halftime, but the Marshall County school’s bench was just as talented and posted 26 and 32 point third and fourth quarters.

Tyler Consolidated’s scores by quarter were 10, 13, 19, and 16 respectively. Three Knights scored in double figures. Leading the way was Perkey with 15, followed by Minger with 13 and Snider with 12. Jones added nine, Lowe finished with six, and Brown scored three.

Justin Eikleberry led John Marshall, who had five players in double figures, with 17 points.

Against St. Marys, the Silver Knights played the Blue Devils close in a rare game that was played despite school being cancelled. Because the game was a conference matchup and couldn’t be made up, the go ahead was given to get the game in.

Tyler Consolidated played their neighboring county rivals close for a quarter, trailing 14-13 at the end of the first eight minutes. However, St. Marys used a 27-14 run in the middle two frames to give them a comfortable lead, and went on to win 56-37.

Lowe was the only Silver Knight to reach double figures with 10. Both Minger and Perkey tossed in seven, Snider scored six, Boone Kehrer added three, and Brown and Jones each had two.

Perhaps the biggest dividing factor was the rebounding.

St. Marys controlled the glass by a 32-14 advantage.