BEAVER -- The Green Bobcats were sputtering from Friday night's game, so they used two different gears Saturday night.

After a sluggish first half, Green turned it on in the second half in a 55-48 win over the Beaver Eastern Eagles.

"Both teams showed signs of having played very hard-fought, emotional games the night before," Green coach Kevin Lewis said. "We were concerned about legs so we played a slower tempo the first half. We got out and tried to play more up-tempo the second half."

Ben Dyer led the Bobcats with 19 points, nine rebounds and five assists. Timmy Yarnell scored 17 points, Aaron Patten had 11 points, and Derek Lewis handed out four assists.

The slow moving first half left the score tied 16-16.

Yarnell then scored 7 points and Dyer 6 in the third quarter as Green inched in front 34-32.

But the Bobcats began to pull away in the fourth quarter and avenged an earlier loss to the Eagles.

"We put a real nice stretch together at the end of the third quarter and start of the fourth quarter to get an 8- or 9-point lead," said Lewis. "We went to our spread offense with about three minutes to go and we didn't make any turnovers during that span which was big."

Dyer scored 13 points in the fourth including 11 of 16 at the foul line. As a team, the Bobcats were 13 of 20 from the line over the final minutes.

"We didn't shoot free throws that well, but we shot them well enough to hold on and get an important SOC win on the road," Lewis said.

Green is now 11-3 and second in the SOC with a 9-2 record.

Eastern (3-12) had three players were in double figures as Adam Mathews scored 13 and Dustin Montgomery and Jacob Dixon 12 each.

The Bobcats host Portsmouth West Tuesday in a non-league game.

Green881821--55

Eastern5111616--48

GREEN (11-3, 9-2):

Timmy Yarnell 5 0 7-11 17, Ben Dyer 4 0

14-19

22, Derek Lewis 0 1 0-3 3, Aaron Patten 2 1 4-6 11, Adam Sparks 1 0 0-0 2, Adam Bradley 0 0 0-0 0. Totals: 14-39

(2)

25-39

55. Fouls: 17. Fouled out: None. Rebounds: 26 (Dyer 9). Assists: 10 (Dyer 5, Lewis 4). Turnovers: 9.

BEAVER EASTERN:

Donny Burton 0 0 0-2 0, Adam Mathews 4 0 5-10 13, Jared Nichols 2 0 0-0 4, Kevin Greene 2 1 0-1 7, Dustin Montgomery 4 0 4-6 12, Jacob Dixon 5 0 2-2 12. Totals: 17

1

11-21

48. Fouls: 24. Fouled out: Mathews, Burton.