Glenn Roberts eyes the basket during Tuesday night’s game against the Hardin-Jefferson Hawks. Roberts contributed eight points to East Chambers’ 42 points.

By SCOTT REESE WILLEY

Hometown PressT

he East Chambers Buccaneers varsity basketball team rallied in the third quarter to close within three points of the No. 3 state-ranked Hardin-Jefferson, but the  Hawks hung on to win the district-opener 47-42 on Tuesday.

The game was played in Winnie.

Austen Gilfillian led the scoring for the Bucs with nine points and Adam Davis and Glenn Roberts were credited with eight points apiece. Kevin Carr posted seven points and Hank Jones added six points to his season record. Dallas Gibson had two points — both free throws — and Titus King had one basket.

East Chambers’ defense held the high-octane Hawks’ offense to a mere 11 points in the first period of play, while the Bucs offense managed to put five points on the board.

The Buccaneers outscored their opponents 11 points to 10 points in the second period of play but still trailed 21-16 at half time.

East Chambers closed within three points of Hardin-Jefferson in the final seconds of the third period and would have outscored their opponents for a second straight period in a row but a Hawks 3-pointer at the buzzer gave H-J a 38-34 lead going into the final period of the game.

East Chambers scored 17 points in the third period to Hardin-Jefferson’s 18.

The Bucs added another eight points in the final period of the game and the Hawks added another nine points.The Buccaneers take on Warren on Friday.

The game will be played in Winnie and starts at 7:30 p.m. The freshmen and junior varsity teams will play earlier in the day.East Chambers varsity players defeated West Orange-Stark 55-44 on Dec. 7 and beat Woodville 60-45 on Saturday, Dec. 4.

In the West Orange-Stark game, the Bucs lead 16-14 at the end of the first period and led 35 to 25 at the end of the first half.

The Bucs outscored WOS 11 to eight in the third period but WOS outscored EC 11 to nine in the final period.

The Bucs led Woodville 13 to 10 at the end of the first period and 25 to 19 at the end of the first half. EC outscored Woodville 15 points to nine points in the third period and 20 to 17 in the fourth period.