The Pleasant Home Eagles swept the Red Level Tigers in two games to kick off the 2016-2017 AHSAA basketball season Tuesday night in Red Level.

VARSITY BOYS

PLEASANT HOME 61, RED LEVEL 44

In the varsity boys’ game, the Eagles jumped out front early and held off the Tigers for a 61-44 victory.

Austin Kelley got Pleasant Home on the board first when he dropped in a layup off of a pass from Nic Woods.

Ontaryo Nearor got a couple of buckets for Red Level, but Pleasant Home held a 14-6 lead after one period of play.

Hunter Ward got the first bucket of the second period for Pleasant Home, but Jacob Catrett answered right back with a 3-point bucket from the corner to leave the Tigers trailing 16-11.

At halftime, Pleasant Home was on top 31-17.

Nearor went 2-for-2 at the charity stripe to start the second half to cut the Eagles’ lead down to 31-19.

The Eagles responded with a couple of buckets from Robert Scott and 3-pointer from Walt Weaver to make the score 36-21.

Both teams continued to slug it out, but at the end of three periods Pleasant Home was on top 50-31.

The Eagles got another big 3-pointer from Weaver and buckets from Scott and Tyler Myrick to give Pleasant Home a 61-44 victory.

“We are always glad to start the season with a win,” Pleasant Home head coach Troy Turman said. “We played well at times, but it was really more of an up-and-down game for us. You have to look at the positives, and there were a lot more positives than anything else. Red Level is a young team, but I was very impressed with them. They are going to continue to improve and so are we.”

Nearor led Red Level with 19 points and Catrett finished with 11.

Myrick led the Eagles with 15 points. Weaver had 11 points and Scott tacked on 10 points.

VARSITY  GIRLS

PLEASANT HOME 70, RED LEVEL 10

The Pleasant Home Lady Eagles got their season started off strong note with a 70-10 victory over the Red Level Tigers on Tuesday night.

Pleasant Home jumped out front and held a 25-1 lead after one period of play.

At halftime, the Lady Eagles continued to pour on the pressure with a 47-3 advantage.

The remainder of the Lady Eagles’ points came in the third period, and Pleasant Home was up 70-3 entering the final frame.

Red Level added 7 points in the fourth to make it 70-10.

“For the first game of the year, I thought we did a lot of good things,” Lady Eagles’ head coach Jerry Davis said. “I feel like we have five girls that can play right now, but we have to work on depth. River (Baldwin) is going to be tough for anyone to stop regardless, but I think this year we have a few girls that are going to be able to shoot the ball and get some the pressure off River.”

Baldwin finished with 39 points in the Lady Eagles victory.