BY DAVID FOLSE II

Sports Editor

RESERVE-Are playoff games really suppose to be this easy?

In one of the biggest blowouts in the entire state this season, the Reserve Christian Eagles advanced to the second round of the playoffs with a 117-53 victory over Hosanna last Friday night.

Junior guard Demond “Tweetie” Carter again led the Eagles with 35 points. Kevin Branch had 27 and Justin Porter added 15.

Reserve Christian advanced to the second round last night where they had to travel to North Louisiana to take on Quitman, the runners-up in district 5-B.

Up 76-13 at the half, Eagles Head Coach Tim Byrd said his team came out with the fire and intensity that he wanted them to.

“My kids are playing with a lot of focus,” Byrd said. “They are playing like they are on a mission. They are definitely putting it all together at the right time.

“The defense really stepped up in the first half. We only gave up 13 points. I was really proud of our effort defensively. We showed some new zone full-court presses and they executed them to almost near perfection. That allowed us to just wear Hosanna down.”

With the game’s result never in doubt after the first quarter, Byrd said his team used the game to work on specific things that will help them down the road later in the playoffs.

“We went into the game wanting to do two things,” Byrd said. “We wanted to make sure that our effort and focus was there and it was right from the start. The second thing that we needed to do since we had only played one game in the last two weeks was to get back on track and get our timing down.

“We wanted to build some chemistry and not play like we did against Country Day and we were able to do that.”