By JOHNNY PEPPO

Sports Editor

RESERVE — Phoenix felt the heat in December on Thursday when they came into Reserve Christian’s Eagle Nest for the Eagles homecoming.

The girl’s squad struck first with a 41-13 win over the Lady Spartans where Reserve Christian’s Daysha Blount took it to Phoenix early.

Blount opened scoring for RCS to tie it at 2-2 and scored a jumper after a steal to take a lead that they would never give up.

Ashley Wilking made it 6-3 with an offensive rebound and a quick shot. Blount brought it to a five point lead with a deep shot for a basket then took got a steal and a fast break for a layup with 4:50 left in the half.

Before the break though, Blount and Wilking pushed the Lady Eagle advantage even further, taking passes from a crisp RCS offense to score another basket.

Phoenix had trouble getting anything clean going on their side of the ball, and Wilking found her shot with a three-pointer to take it into halftime 17-8.

The second half was much the same though, as the Reserve Christian defense kept the Lady Spartans from passing the ball inside and used the fast break to get high-percentage baskets. With the final score well on the side of RCS, the Lady Eagles finished the game on a high note as they head into a break in their schedule until January 2 when they travel to play Riverside.

The eveing game pitted a hustling 12-9 Eagles squad against the 4-10 Spartans, who had trouble holding onto the ball and never found rhythym shooting the ball in a 103-43 RCS win.

Eddren McCain drove the offensive attack for the Eagles, sinking five three pointers and eight baskets for a game-high 35 points. Cedric Jenkins got in on the rout, adding 32 more points for the Eagles who reached 100 points for the first time in a game this season.

Franklin Francois helped get things off to a fast start in the late game with a pair of three pointers in the first quarter. Going into the second with a 14 point lead, McCain scored ten of the Eagles 17 points to take it into halftime with a sizeable lead.

Jenkins picked it right back up in the third and kept it going all the way through the second half of play, where he scored 26 points.

By the fourth quarter, both teams were going for some style points on the offensive side, much to the delight of the crowd. McCain nearly came down with a one-handed alley-oop from Francois about midway through the period, but the ball just rattled out.

The Eagles moved to 13-9 on the season with the win, a 103-43 final.