TR Nips Westside 44-40

After a non-region victory over Eastside on Tuesday night, the Travelers Rest Devildogs opened their Region 1-AAAA season on Friday with an exciting 44-40 win over Westside's Rams at Joe Small Gymnasium.

Sophomore Drew McKibben led Travelers Rest with 14 points and marked the second time within a week that he paced the team in scoring. On Tuesday night McKibben led the Devildogs with 19 points in TR's 62-54 win over Eastside.

In the closing seconds on Friday night TR held a slim two point lead, 42-40 and Westside had a chance to tie the game with a jump shot with ten seconds left on the clock. The effort failed and Travelers Rest added the final margin off of a fast break layup to nail the win 44-40.

In other Region 1-AAAA games from Friday Easley strolled over Walhalla 42-27. Easley has won only four games overall but two of those wins came against region opponents. Easley holds first place in the region with a 2-0 league mark and a 4-11 overall record. Travelers Rest is in second place with a 1-0 region record and a 10-5 overall mark. Walhalla is third in the region with a 1-1 league showing and the Razorbacks are 5-9 overall. Fourth place is held by Pickens, 0-1 in the region and 8-7 overall. Westside is 0-2 in the region and 8-10 overall.

In Friday night's girls' game the Lady Devildogs of Travelers Rest were knocked off by Westside 60-26. TR managed only 20% shooting from the floor while Westside shot 43%. Westside also grabbed 20 steals while TR snagged 11.

In the girls' side of Region 1-AAAA, Westside seems to be repeating their 2020-21 run as the Lady Rams are 16-0 overall and 1-0 in the region. Pickens is 6-5 overall and 1-0 in the region while Easley is 8-9 overall and also 1-0 in the region. Travelers Rest is 4-11 overall and 0-1 in the region while Walhalla follows with a 9-7 overall record and an 0-2 region record (based on games reported to Maxpreps.com).

Neither TR teams have reported individual stats this season.