The Chatham Cougars took the lead in Thursday's game against the Dover Tigers soon after the opening tip and didn't look back.
Sophomore Jonathan Berntsen started the game off with a three-pointer, and from there on out, the 10-5 Cougars maintained a healthy lead over 2-13 Dover, winning the game at Chatham High School by a score of 59-44.
Chatham came out strong, outscoring Dover 17-10 and 23-11 in the first two quarters. At the start of the third period, the Cougars commanded a 24-point lead. But in the second half, the Tigers clawed back late, scoring 23 points to Chatham's 19.
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"We shot pretty well offensively," said senior Chris Conroy. "We could have held them better. In the second half we had too many turnovers and our defense was pretty sloppy."
The perimeter shots were a key component of the Cougars' win on Thursday night. They hit seven three-pointers in the first two quarters and ended up scoring more than half of their total points from beyond the arc.
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"We certainly could have played better, but we did enough to get the victory," said sophomore Jonathan Berntsen. "We just have to learn and carry over our momentum into the second half."
The Cougars spread the ball around. Berntsen scored a team-high 13 points and Conroy, junior Brian Ballard and freshman Sam Carson each with 10 points. Conroy also contributed 10 rebounds while Ballard added five.
"Conroy had a pretty good game as usual," said Chatham Head Coach Todd Ervin. "He played pretty well on both ends, as did Ballard."
For the Tigers, senior Justin Edmonds scored 16 points with two steals and junior Darius Kersey tallied nine points with four rebounds and a steal.
"We are still trying to come together," said Dover Head Coach John O'Hara. "We need to stop the ball defensively and come back in our zone."
Chatham's next matchup is at home against Hanover Park, on Tuesday at 4 p.m.
"We won two in a row, so Hanover Park is going to be a tough game," said Conroy. "We lost to them at their place, and it was pretty close there, so we are going to be pretty pumped for that."
