MASON, W.Va. — The Eastern Eagles held off a late rally by the Wahama White Falcons (9-7) in Saturday evening’s contest between the future league opponents.

The White Falcons scored first, going up 3-0, before Eastern took its first lead at 4-3. Wahama and Eastern traded baskets, before the White Falcons went on a 5-0 run to stretch their lead to 11-6. Wahama led 18-12 with 1:30 remaining in the first quarter, when the Eagles began a 20-1 run that would cover the remainder of the first half. The lone Wahama point came on a free throw by Trenton Gibbs with 2:30 remaining in the second quarter. After trailing by three at the end of the first quarter, Eastern led by 11, 30-19, at the half.

Wahama scored the first five points of the third quarter to cut the Lady Eagles’ lead to six points. The White Falcons got back to within six on four occasions in the third quarter, with neither team scoring in the final nearly two minutes of the quarter. Eastern led by six 36-30 at the end of the third quarter.

The fourth quarter started the way that the third ended as neither team scored for the first minute, before Wahama cut the lead to four. One minute later, the Eagles had stretched the lead back to 10 points at 44-34. The White Falcons scored five straight to cut the lead back to five. Wahama got to within one on free throws by Elijah Honaker and Ryan Lee in the final seconds of the game, before Eastern took the 55-52 lead on two free throws by Mike Johnson to end the game. The Eagles won by a final of 55-52.

The game had two ties, both in the first half, before Eastern took the lead with 6:45 remaining in the second quarter and would not trail again. The largest lead for the Eagles came at the half, with the 11 point margin, and Wahama had their largest lead in the first quarter, as they led by six points, on two separate occasions.

Eastern was led in scoring by Mike Johnson with 20 points, including a 10-14 night at the free throw line. Titus Pierce scored eight points, before leaving the game with a right leg injury, grabbed six rebounds, and led the team in steals with three.

Jake Lynch added seven points, Devon Baum and Kelly Winebrenner each scored five points, Brayden Pratt had four points, Tyler Hendrix added three points, and Kyle Connery had one point.

For the White Falcons, Zach Whitlatch had 19 points and Ryan Lee scored 17 to lead the team. Isaac Lee, Matt Arnold, and Honaker each scored four points, Tyler Kitchen had three points, and Trenton Gibbs had one point.

The Eagles out rebounded Wahama 29 to 23 in the contest, with Winebrenner and Pierce each grabbing six boards for Eastern, and Ryan Lee having seven rebounds for Wahama. Eastern was 16-51 (.313) from the field, while Wahama was 20-53 (.377) in the contest. The Eagles went 18-27 (.667) from the free throw line, with Wahama going 7-12 (.583).

Eastern won the JV game by a score of 54-51. The Eagles were led by Max Carnahan with 21 points and Wahama was led by Austin Jordan with 15 points.

Eastern, who are currently ranked No. 7 in the Ohio AP poll, host River Valley in Tuesday in a game that had been postponed three previous times. The White Falcons hosted Cross Lanes Christian on Monday.