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Charleston catches fire in second half

Tigers ride strong conference start to Slim Chickens Team of the Week

CHARLESTON, Ark. — It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish. We’ve all heard it, and it’ one of those sports cliché’s that’s pretty boring at this point. But outside of Arkansas leading Georgia 7-5 maybe, no one remembers the halftime score. They remember the final. The Slim Chickens Team of the Week heads to Charleston, and a Tigers team that fully embodies that ethos.

“Coach May’s motto all week was to bring the wood, and before halftime we didn’t bring the wood.”

For the second week in a row, Charleston started a conference game in a somewhat lackluster fashion. And for the second week in a row, they turned things on in the second half. The Tigers scored 22 points in the fourth quarter to pull off a huge conference win over Cedarville.

“First half, we come out slow, we fumble the ball, second half we gained our composure, and coach put us in a position to execute,” says senior Dalton Curtis.

“The kids just decided to come out and play second half I guess,” says head coach Rick May. “We haven’t started very fast all year, it’s kinda been a thing where we feel things out in the first half, in the second half we come out and play hard. I’d like to think it’s the halftime speech, but I’m smart enough to know that it’s not.”

His players say otherwise. Just ask Curtis and fellow senior Nathan Zimmer.

“It gets us fired up.”

“During the halftime speech, I just listen to what coach is saying, believe in what he’s saying, then we got out and execute what he’s saying.”

Each game is somewhat of a microcosm of the Charleston season, which started with a tough 1-2 non-conference slate, followed by a perfect 2-0 start to conference play. It’s all part of May’s plan.

“The reason we schedule the non-conference that we do is to get us ready for conference. Obviously, we’d like to be 3-0, but we felt like we’d be more prepared for conference if we played tough teams.”

Now that the slow start is out of the way, Charleston looks to attack the second half of the season like they have the second half of games, says Curtis.

“We cannot become complacent. Last year we started 2-0 then got complacent, and didn’t do as well as we’d like, so this year we’re taking it one week, one team at a time.”

On Tuesday, the Tigers got chicken as the Slim Chickens Team of the Week, on Friday, they’re off to Mansfield where they’ll look to keep their perfect conference start going.

It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish. We’ve all heard it, and it’ one of those sports cliché’s that’s pretty boring at this point. But outside of Arkansas leading Georgia 7-5 maybe, no one remembers the halftime score. They remember the final. The Slim Chickens Team of the Week heads to Charleston, and a Tigers team that fully embodies that ethos.

“Coach May’s motto all week was to bring the wood, and before halftime we didn’t bring the wood.”

For the second week in a row, Charleston started a conference game in a somewhat lackluster fashion. And for the second week in a row, they turned things on in the second half. The Tigers scored 22 points in the fourth quarter to pull off a huge conference win over Cedarville.

“First half, we come out slow, we fumble the ball, second half we gained our composure, and coach put us in a position to execute,” says senior Dalton Curtis.

“The kids just decided to come out and play second half I guess,” says head coach Rick May. “We haven’t started very fast all year, it’s kinda been a thing where we feel things out in the first half, in the second half we come out and play hard. I’d like to think it’s the halftime speech, but I’m smart enough to know that it’s not.”

His players say otherwise. Just ask Curtis and fellow senior Nathan Zimmer.

“It gets us fired up.”

“During the halftime speech, I just listen to what coach is saying, believe in what he’s saying, then we got out and execute what he’s saying.”

Each game is somewhat of a microcosm of the Charleston season, which started with a tough 1-2 non-conference slate, followed by a perfect 2-0 start to conference play. It’s all part of May’s plan.

“The reason we schedule the non-conference that we do is to get us ready for conference. Obviously, we’d like to be 3-0, but we felt like we’d be more prepared for conference if we played tough teams.”

Now that the slow start is out of the way, Charleston looks to attack the second half of the season like they have the second half of games, says Curtis.

“We cannot become complacent. Last year we started 2-0 then got complacent, and didn’t do as well as we’d like, so this year we’re taking it one week, one team at a time.”

On Tuesday, the Tigers got chicken as the Slim Chickens Team of the Week, on Friday, they’re off to Mansfield where they’ll look to keep their perfect conference start going.

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