PHOTO GALLERY: Perryville boys basketball downs Rising Sun

    The Perryville boys basketball team downed visiting Rising Sun 69-53 Thursday evening.
    Tony Smith paced the Panthers with 21 points. Tyrell Hollingsworth had 18 points, eight rebounds, 10 steals, and seven assists. Elijah Johnson collected 17 points, eight steals, seven assists, and six rebounds. Jon Eldreth contributed 11 points. Jack Wennersten chipped in six and Tyleke Johnson added five.

    For Rising Sun, Brandon Aro recorded 25 points, 13 rebounds, four blocks, and two steals. Spencer McDermott provided 12 points, five rebounds, and two steals. Jordan Edwards had six points, two assists, and a steal.
    The Tigers started strong and led 17-13 at the end of the first quarter. But Perryville outscored Rising Sun 22-5 in the second quarter to take a 13-point halftime advantage.
    "You're not going to beat anybody like that," Rising Sun coach Matt Haack said. "We have to be able to execute our zone offense and get some points on the board. We did not do that in the second quarter. I don't know exactly what was happening because we did a good job against the zone in the first quarter. We had good movement. We were getting good passes inside. And then we just kind of settled in and were throwing some lazy passes and weren't really aggressive against that zone."
    The Panthers led 52-33 at the end of the third quarter and quickly raised the margin to 23. That's when Edwards provided the Tigers with a big boost off the bench. He keyed a 13-0 Rising Sun run that trimmed the deficit to 10 with 3:16 left.
    "He's one of our guys we know we can bring off the bench and he's going to bring defensive energy in any situation," Haack said. "And he did a great job of doing that. But not only that, he provided an offensive spark. He was aggressive to get to the rim. He wasn't afraid to go in and draw some contact. And that really sparked us to try to make a rally in the fourth."
    But Rising Sun missed a dunk which would've got the margin into single digits and Perryville pulled away again.