The Indians rebounded from tough losses earlier in the week against Bell and Newberry.

And the Eagles? Their slump continues after losses against St. Francis Catholic and Dixie County.

Bronson kept things close during the first half, but Chiefland’s 21-9 third quarter put the game away. Eagles coach Aaron Haldeman said that his team is struggling on defense, and their funk can’t continue if they want to finish near the top of their district this season.

“We were out of rotation and not helping on the midline,” Haldeman said. “We’ve just got to do a better job over 32 minutes. Right now, we’re just playing 16, and that’s not going to carry us through.”

As for the Indians, coach Mike Beck is just satisfied that his team is back on track after a pair of losses. Eugene Carter was once again the scoring leader for Chiefland with 25 points. But Carter also improved at distributing the ball, Beck said, finishing with six assists, three blocks, five steals and eight rebounds.

“He would rather play that way,” Beck said. “Sometimes we need him to score more than that, but this is the kind of game he’s proud of.”

One of the benefactors of Carter’s generosity was Bo Beauchamp, who played a much stronger game inside, finishing with 10 points.

“He came through,” Beck said of Beauchamp. “We told him all week that we needed a strong presence inside, that we can’t just depend on outside shooting, and he put up a good game.”

But Carter led the Indians from the very start, from the game’s first basket to a steal and layup to close the first with a 13-7 Indians lead. Chiefland opened the second quarter with two huge blocks from Carter and Marquis Greene, then maintained the tempo to take a 22-14 lead at halftime.

It looked like another Carter showcase, but Beck told his squad to spread things around. His reasoning? There will be games where the rest of the team will have to contribute in order to win.

“I told them at halftime, that somebody else on this team has to score, but if that’s not going to happen, then we have to be smart enough to get the ball to the guy who is scoring,” Beck said.

Chiefland piled it on in the third quarter, opening with a 10-2 run and putting the game quickly out of reach, despite a strong second half from Bronson shooter Zach Hamilton, who finished the game with 11 points. 

“In the first half, we played much better than how we’ve been playing,” Haldeman said. “In the second half, we just sank right back into the funk that we’ve been in the past couple games.”

Indeed, the Eagles were kept quiet in the second half, despite Hamilton’s play and six fourth quarter points from Raymie Powers. The Eagles did stage a 13-point fourth quarter. But by then, it was too late.

Bronson has some work to do to, especially under the basket to get back on track, Haldeman said. He added that Bronson is not used to struggling in basketball, but some wins should get things going for the Eagles.

“I don’t think there’s some magic potion,” Haldeman said. “It’s obvious to everybody.”