Just three days removed from defeating Hayti on the road to capture its first conference championship since the 2011-2012 season, Portageville hosted longtime rival New Madrid County Central on Friday night. Circled on the calendar since the start of the season the two foes made their only meeting of the season memorable. After a strong first half showing, though, the Eagles did not respond well in the second half, leading to the Bulldogs clawing out a 54-48 win. There was no letdown, after a decisive win on Tuesday night, which Portageville head coach Jason Irby said he was worried about coming into Friday night. “We were a little nervous about it, but we felt like the fact that we were playing New Madrid, we bounced back pretty well,” Irby said. “We were more worried about just physical fatigue, rather than a mental let down. We knew how good they were; we’ve seen a lot of them. They got a really good team, a really good coach. I’m just super proud of how our kids found a way to gut it out in the fourth quarter and come back from a three-point deficit.” Starting off the game, it did not look promising for Portageville (15-4). The Eagles started the game leading 13-8 after the first quarter; punching the Bulldogs in the mouth. NMCC (8-7) had them frazzled, the entire half, as they forced 10 turnovers through the first two periods. Johnnie Walker and Kevon Williams each provided strong first halves for the Eagles as well. Walker scored all of his points at the end of the half, as he pushed the Eagles up three points, on a personal 6-0 run, before Portageville’s AJ Hicks hit a 3-pointer at the end of the half — halting the Eagles momentum. Williams also showed his aggressiveness in the half, scoring eight points and corralling four rebounds. After not taking care of the ball in the first half, the Bulldogs responded to the defensive looks that NMCC was showing them. Portageville finished the game with four turnovers and punched the Eagles right back — forcing them to cough up six turnovers. “One of our game keys was to match their physicality, and I think the first half, we struggled with handling that initially,” Irby said. “Second half, our kids calmed down, were able to find the openings in their defense and did a much better job of playing with poise.” Both teams found it hard to put the ball in the basket during the third quarter, as the Eagles and Bulldogs combined for 11 points and five field goals. Once closing time hit though, both teams were able to score more fluently. Drew Irby started the period scoring the first five points for the Bulldogs, tyinh the game at 36. Irby finished the game with eight points and two rebounds. Then toward the end of the frame, the action started to pick up, as both teams were seemingly trading baskets. Walker started the trend by making a 3-pointer with three minutes to play, to cut the Bulldogs lead to 43-42. Hicks then responded with a basket to put Portageville back up by three, but NMCC answered a couple of possessions later, as Bryshawn Williams created the steal and turned that into a layup at the other end, to cut the lead to 45-44. After Hicks hit another jumper, Donnie Ray Brown got into the action, converting on a layup to — once again — make it a one-point game. Starting to heat up, Hicks was able to get himself open in the corner, splashing his second, and final 3-pointer of the game and putting the Bulldogs up 50-46. “My team needed points, and I hadn’t contributed,” said Hicks on his play in the fourth quarter. “Even though I was missing early in the game, my teammates kept me up.” Coming off the bench, Hicks stayed ready, and made the most of his minutes. He finished with 10 points on 4 of 5 shooting, and Irby said resting him during certain periods ended up helping the team down the stretch. “AJ’s kind of a feel and rhythm player,” Irby said. “For us, fortunately, he got into a good rhythm there late; came in fresh — we had him out for a little bit — and I think his legs and his lift helped him on those shots. Those were big shots he hit, and gave us enough separation to pull away there at the end.” Outscoring NMCC 23-14 in the final period, the Eagles had multiple opportunities to win, which McFerren talked about after. “This was a gym that’s loud, and I told them to use this as a learning tool because we’re getting ready for districts,” McFerren said. “Coming down and playing Charleston in districts, their gym is just as loud as this, so this could help us if we could come out victorious. The thing about it is that we missed a golden opportunity time-after-time, and missed the easy buckets, that would have helped us.” NMCC 13 14 7 14 — 48 Portageville 8 19 4 23 — 54 NMCC (48) — Johnnie Walker 15, Kevon Williams 12, Christian Phillips 7, Thailin Marsh 6, Donnie Ray Brown 6, Bryshawn Williams 2. FG 22, FT 2-4, F 13. (3-pointers: Walker, Phillips. Fouled out: none) Portageville (54) — Bub Lance 17, AJ Hicks 10, Bryce Rone 9, Drew Irby 8, Steven Guo 7, Terry Kirkwood 3. FG 19, FT 7-11, F 5. (3-pointers: Lance 3, Irby 2, Hicks 2, Guo, Rone. Fouled out: none)