NAYLOR -- Naylor coach Jim Carrier knows how much he runs his team in practice. After falling behind early, he told his players to trust their endurance.
Fresh off scoring his 1,000th point, Naylor junior Zeke Ward led a come-from-behind win as the Eagles beat East Carter 68-59 on Tuesday.
"With our guys, they will tell you, I run them plenty. I felt like when the fourth quarter rolled around, we would have enough gas in the tank and East Carter wouldn't," Carrier said. "I watched them enough and they don't hit very many 3-pointers and they came out hitting the 3. I thought if we sped them up, eventually their legs may be gone and they won't hit those 3s at the end of the ball game."
Ward, who entered the game with 1,001 points for his career, led Naylor with 22 points, including a pair of crucial fourth quarter field goals to stave off any East Carter comeback.
"He's one of the hardest workers I've ever been around, very deserving of it. He brings it every single game, every single practice. I'm proud of the kid, I hope he gets another 1,000," Carrier said of Ward, who was recognized during the second quarter for the achievement.
Added Ward, "It felt great, a lot of hard work, a lot of family helped me through it. It was a goal I set for myself when I got into high school."
Naylor (5-7, 1-1 OFC) was down as much as nine points early after East Carter (3-9, 0-4) came out hitting 3-pointers.
"We put a lot of pressure attacking on offense," East Carter coach Jordan Penn said of the strong start. "We let our defense flow into our offense. We thought if we could attack them inside we could get some advantage there with our big guys inside. We rebounded well early, kind of got away from that late and that is what turned the game, I think."
The Eagles caught up midway through the second quarter and took the lead after a pair of free throws from Ward.
The next 13 minutes was back and forth with eight lead changes and six ties.
With a minute left in the third quarter, Naylor took the lead for good on a field goal by Even Bergeron and Naylor was up by two going into the fourth quarter.
The Eagles then separated with a seven-point run to start the fourth. TJ Rosson, who finished with 21 points, sank a 3 to start the fourth quarter and Bergeron followed with a field goal.
Rosson then got fouled on a 3-pointer, made two of the free throws, and Naylor was up by nine.
East Carter ramped up the pressure and the speed of its offense as the Redbirds tried to make a comeback. With three minutes left, Ward scored on two straight possessions. On the second, he found a spot in East Carter's zone and drove through the entire defense and sank a layup before crashing to the floor.
The bucket put Naylor up by 10. Soon after, Jordan Cook got a free throw to make it 11, Naylor's biggest lead of the game.
While Ward led Naylor in scoring, it was Rosson who seemed to come through in the biggest moments after Carrier tweaked the offense to get him more catch-and-shoot opportunities on the wing instead of at the top of the key.
"He's been hit and miss this season," Carrier said. "He's really been working on it in practice and it seemed like it didn't come to him in the game, so we tweaked our offense a little bit to get him some looks where he could step into some 3s, get him some more opportunities in the corners and on the wings. He really came out and shot well tonight. I'm proud of him."
When Naylor was down by nine in the first quarter, it was Rosson who sank a corner 3.
Down six in the second, he made another. Then he came up with a steal and a lay-in and another corner 3 to cut the lead to a single point with five minutes left in the first half.
Rosson had nine of his 21 points in the second quarter and after a quiet third, he opened the fourth with the last of his four 3-pointers and had five points in Naylor's decisive seven-point run.
He even finished with a little flair by laying in an oop with two minutes left for his final field goal.
The Redbirds had three 3-pointers and nine total field goals in the first quarter and scored 21 points. But then they slowly faded with six field goals in the second quarter, six in the third and just two in the fourth, where they scored nine total points. East Carter did not make a 3 after the first quarter.
"We are not a team that plays very well from behind. When we got down early in the fourth, our guys pressed a little bit, we started attacking the basket recklessly and turned it over a couple of times," Penn said. "The last game we played, we shot a ton of 3s. Our efforts the last couple days in practice were to attack the basket. I thought we fell in love with the jump shot early and we kind of got hot for a minute, but everybody knows you live by the 3 you die by the 3. We were hot, we were feeling good, and when we got cold we didn't have the capacity to stop shooting them and attack. That is my fault coaching wise."
Dalton Rud was 5 for 6 on free throws in the fourth quarter and led East Carter with 18 total points. He had six points in the first quarter after making a pair of 3-pointers.
Lane Chilton added 14 points, including both of East Carter's field goals in the fourth quarter, and Eli Fuller had 11.