A game that went Charleston’s way early, as well as late, had its fair share of fireworks on Tuesday night at New Madrid County Central High School. The Bluejays rebounded from an emotional loss to Sikeston on Friday night, with a wire-to-wire victory over NMCC, 66-48. The fourth quarter proved to have the most moments, as Charleston (11-3, 2-2 SEMO Conference) took a 15 point lead into the frame. NMCC (8-6, 2-1 SEMO Conference), however, continued to fight after cutting the Bluejays lead down to 11 and gaining momentum momentarily, as well. On the very next possession, though, Charleston took the ball right at the rim and drew a blocking foul while doing so. Eagles head coach Lennies McFerren would have other thoughts, however, and made sure the referee was aware of it, which forced him to call a technical foul on McFerren. With a technical foul already issued, McFerren didn’t stop there, as he continued to disagree with the official’s ruling, which ultimately forced a second technical foul on the long-tenured coach, and ejection from the game at the 5:44-mark. From that point, the Eagles found new life and assistant coach Dontre’ Jenkins — who took over after McFerren got ejected — saw that out of his team. “I saw that we had some fight,” Jenkins said. “A little bit too late, but I hate to see us dig ourselves into a hole where we have to fight out of it the whole game. We had a little fight right there at the end, got it to 10, but couldn’t get over the hump.” Senior Ke’von Williams’ slam dunk highlighted the burst from the Eagles that cut the Bluejays lead to 10. With four minutes left, junior Donnie Ray Brown missed a shot that looked to head out-of-bounds. A hustling Bryshawn Williams, though, was able to save the ball from going out, landing it right in the hands of Williams, who did the rest by throwing down a thunderous dunk that got the home crowd to their feet. In the end, the Eagle’s comeback ultimately fell short, as the Bluejays were able to stay composed down-the-stretch. Turnovers were the big problem for the Eagles, as the Bluejays pressure defense proved to be difficult to solve. NMCC committed 31 turnovers for the game to Charleston’s 17 “We played hard tonight,” Charleston head coach Danny Farmer said. “We kept them moving, making them move so that they can turn the ball over. We want it to be a fast-paced game, and when I think about it, I was pleased. I was pleased with the effort, and I was also pleased with the free-throw shooting.” After a game against Sikeston, where Charleston shot 9 of 24 (37%) at the line, it rebounded well against the Eagles. The Bluejays shots 15 of 23 at the line (65%) at the charity stripe, while the roles reversed, with the Eagles shooting 4 of 10 (40%) in their own right. Even with the poor night at the foul line, McFerren pointed to the Bluejay’s ruthless defense as the reason for the loss. Get your Semoball fix in one daily email Your email address “We couldn’t handle it, and we tried to do some things that we weren’t capable of doing,” McFerren said. “That caused us to turn the ball over.” Even with Charleston going cold from the perimeter, it was still able to pull away and win by a rather large margin. The Bluejays shot 1 of 12 (8%) from three-point range, with senior Sam Bledsoe draining the lone long-range jumper of the game. Senior Blessin Kimble finished with a double-double, dropping a game-high 18 points and hauling 10 rebounds. Bledsoe finished with 17 points on 6 of 12 shooting. He added four rebounds and four steals as well. Fellow seniors Isaiah Gillespie and Terridean Bogan also finished in double-figures for the Bluejays. Gillespie had 17 points on 6 of 16 shooting, five rebounds, four assists, and six steals. Bogan had 10 points, on 3 of 11 shooting, and added a double-double, with 10 assists as well. Williams led NMCC with 11 points to go along with eight rebounds. Brown was the other Eagle to reach double-figures, as he finished with 10 points. Charleston returns home on Friday night, when it faces Scott County Central, at 7:30 p.m. NMCC host Cape Central on Friday night, also at 7:30 p.m. Charleston 16 17 7 26 — 66 NMCC 10 10 5 25 — 48 CHARLESTON (66) — Blessin Kimble 18, Sam Bledsoe 17, Isaiah Gillespie 17, Terridean Bogan 10, EK Davis 2, Brian Visor 2. FG 25, FT 15-23, F 17. (3-pointers: Bledsoe. Fouled out: none) NMCC (48) — Ke’von Williams 11, Donnie Ray Brown 10, Shamar Williamson 9, Christen Phillips 6, Marcelous Phillips 6, Ansel Underwood 4, Bryshawn Williams 2. FG 22, FT 4-10, F 20. (3-pointers: none. Fouled out: Underwood)