Chelsea Runs by Adrian in Shootout

The matchup between two of the top teams in the SEC White was a shootout from the start as Chelsea took down Adrian 97-87 in a slugfest Friday night.

Both teams entered the matchup ranked in Division 2 with Adrian ranked seventh and the Bulldogs who have played one of the toughest schedules in the state in any division honorable mention with a 5-5 overall record.

It was the Bulldogs that came out scorching with 36 first quarter points and looked like they would cruise with a 36-13 lead after one quarter.

Adrian showed why the Maples are ranked in the top-ten in D2 and began to chip away at the Chelsea lead in the second by outscoring the Bulldogs 23-18 and cut the lead to 54-36 at halftime.

As explosive as Chelsea was in the first, the Maples were just that in the third as they put 30 on the board to outscore the Bulldogs 30-23 to cut the lead to 77-66 after three.

The Maples wouldn’t stop there as they opened the third with a 13-4 run to cut the Bulldogs lead to two 81-79 with four minutes left.

Chelsea would stop the slide and outscored Adrian 16-8 over the final four minutes that was capped off by a dunk by Hayden Long with just over 20 seconds remaining to seal the win.

The Bulldogs hit 11 triples from behind the arch for the night with Jake Stephens connecting for four and finishing with a team high 33 points to lead Chelsea.

Joey Cabana finished with 23 points, including hitting nine of 10 from the free throw line on the night.

Long finished with a career high of 14 points, while Drew Blanton added 11 points. Regan Plank knocked down two triples and finished with six points, Will McCalla three points, Zach McIntosh and Nick Martin two points each.

The Bulldogs host Jackson in another key SEC White matchup Tuesday and travel to Ypsilanti Friday night.