Sherwood Christian earns sweep of Byne Academy

ALBANY — Sherwood Christian received big contributions from multiple players Thursday night on their way to a 67-36 home win over Byne Christian Academy.

The Eagles had three players in double figures.

“It was a good win,” Sherwood boys coach Chad Payn said. “It is a good way to finish off the year going into Christmas. We did a lot of good things and met a lot of good goals tonight. Our offense was more patient, and we ran what we were supposed to run. Our defense also made some good stops.”

Sherwood led 12-6 at the end of the first quarter, but Byne came back to tie the game at 14 in the second quarter before Sherwood Christian ended the half on an 18-2 run. The Eagles were able to do that with point guard Sammy Smith on the bench.

Smith scored 10 points in the first 10 minutes of play but sat out the majority of the second quarter. He scored eight in a row for Sherwood earlier in the game and led all scorers with 18.

Early on, he and Byne guard Colton Adams engaged in a scoring battle. Adams matched Smith with 10 points through the first half.

Joshua Kendrick went all out for Sherwood. He created multiple turnovers and was a rebounding machine. During one sequence in the third quarter, Kendrick pulled down two consecutive offensive rebounds before hitting a trey. He finished with 13 points.

“Josh is all over the floor,” Payn said. “He’s aggressive, smart, he can hit the three and he can drive the lane. He is an all-around player. He was an all-around good player tonight.”

The Eagles outscored Byne 26-13 in the third quarter.

Sherwood sat the majority of the starters during the fourth quarter. Payn was particularly happy with his team’s rebounding.

“That is something we work on daily,” he said. “We are trying to improve and need to get better at that. We are not the biggest team in our division so we need to box out and get good rebounds.”

The Eagles also received a 12-point night from Anthony Adams.

Colton Adams led Byne with 16 points.

Sherwood Christian girls 51, Byne Academy 8

Sherwood Christian played an all-around game on Tuesday night to beat Byne. The Lady Eagles forced multiple turnovers and played stingy defense en route to a 51-8 victory.

Sherwood jumped out to an 11-2 advantage in the first quarter and kept building as the game progressed. The Lady Eagles led 21-5 at halftime. They allowed just three points in the second half.

“The first half was pretty sloppy, especially the second quarter,” Sherwood coach Rebecca Fyock said. “The third and fourth quarter, we cleaned it up and played some good ball. We were working on some things that we needed to work on.”

Molly Kate McClearn led all scorers with 12 points. She had eight of the Lady Eagles’ 11 points in the first quarter.

Anna Dickerson contributed 10 points for Sherwood.

Byne received four points each from Jenny Harrison and Kiley Burton.