Boys basketball: Golden Eagles top Red Raiders in SCOL battle

By Nicole Homsher

For The Madison Press

It was rivalry night Friday when the Red Raiders of London traveled to play Madison-Plains.

From the very beginning,  you could feel the intensity and energy between the two teams and the game didn’t disappoint as the Golden Eagles earned a 62-55 victory.

You could tell it was going to be a great game between two teams in very different places early in the season.

Madison-Plains is 2-2 overall, (2-0 in the SCOL), while London (0-6) is still looking for its first win of the season.

Golden Eagles head coach Jeff Spradlin felt the game was going to be competitive and knew beforehand that London was much better than its record.

“We knew coming into tonight’s game that it was going to be a dogfight,” Spradlin said. “This is a friendly rivalry, everyone knows everyone else and the boys all play ball together, we are all friends out there.”

Both teams had their ups and downs and Spradlin said his team played with a lot of heart.

“I am really proud of the way the boys played tonight, they really left everything out there on the court,” Spradlin said.

“We started off a little slow at the beginning of the game and the start of the second half, but they picked it up and played with a lot of intensity and finished really strong.

The leading scorer on the night was Madison-Plains’ sophomore Hunter Butin (14 points).

“We all played really hard tonight and we were hitting our shots which was a big help for us,” Butin said. “We are 2-0 in the league but there are still a lot of things we can improve on still.”

Spradlin was impressed with the way Butin played and his consistency throughout the early season.

“Hunter always steps up and scores the ‘quiet points,’” Spradlin said. “He gets the points off turnovers, some in which he helps create and is playing very solid consistent basketball. He is really stepping up as a sophomore.”