Staff photo / Neel Madhavan. Chaney’s Asuante Mickel, right, puts up a shot in traffic over East’s Kordae Phifer (0) on Friday night in Youngstown.

YOUNGSTOWN — In the second-to-last iteration of the City Series rivalry, Chaney took first blood against East on Friday night in the first of the teams’ two meetings this season.

The Cowboys weathered an early surge by the Golden Bears and rode the hot hand of Asuante Mickel throughout the night for a 68-54 victory to maintain bragging rights in the rivalry.

“It’s important for the kids. For us, we’re just fighting for the end of the season,” said Chaney assistant coach Aundra Brown, who spoke for head coach Marlon McGaughy. “All these games in between are just a pretest for everything going on in March. But it’s important because it’s an emotional game. The crowd, the stands are going to be packed and ready to go. So I think the excitement and the atmosphere of the game is really going to help us come tournament time.”

East jumped on the Cowboys early, scoring the game’s first seven points, thanks to a pair of threes from Alberto Maldonado.

The Golden Bears then extended their advantage to 13-4. But Chaney started to heat up, and the Cowboys ended the first quarter on a sizzling 17-4 run to take a four-point lead by the end of the opening period.

“We were just keeping our composure,” Brown said. “We knew it was going to be a slug fest. They’re going to throw punches and they’re going to throw punches. We know it’s going to be that way. It’s an emotional game. It was about us maintaining composure, and that’s what our big talk was about.”

After scoring seven points in the first quarter, Mickel hit two 3-pointers and Austin Brown added another early in the second quarter as Chaney continued its offensive surge.

By halftime, the Cowboys grew their lead to 39-28, as Mickel scored 15 of his game-high 24 points in the first half to lead the Cowboys.

“They made shots, and a couple of our guys got in foul trouble,” East head coach LaVance Turnage Jr. said. “They hit wide open shots, but we gave them open shots. Can’t give up open shots to a good team like that.”

The third quarter belonged to East, as the Golden Bears cut into the deficit by the end of the period to trail 50-43 heading into the final period.

Maldonado continued his hot shooting from beyond the arc, but Tyris Davis also started to get going as he attacked the basket against Chaney’s varying defensive looks. Maldonado led the Golden Bears with 22 points, which included knocking down six 3-pointers. Davis finished with 18 points, as he helped East hang around in the second half.

“We just gotta be mentally disciplined,” Turnage Jr. said. “You gotta know in a type of game like this, and this type of atmosphere, that you gotta control your emotions. That’s what I told my team. You gotta control your emotions, because if you let your emotions get the best of you, it might not be a good result or it can cloud your judgement.”

East battled foul trouble throughout the second half, which made it difficult for it to defend with its usual intensity.

Mickel took advantage, getting to the charity stripe a handful of times in the second half, along with Austin Brown. Allen Hill helped the Cowboys close things out, scoring five of his 15 points in the fourth quarter. Austin Brown also finished with 16 points for Chaney.

“He got hot, hitting a couple threes and also going to the hole,” Aundra Brown said of Mickel. “That’s what we’ve been trying to tell our guys. Our mentality is, everybody goes out with the mentality to try to get 10. Somebody gets hot, he’ll get more than 10, and I think Asuante’s night was tonight. I think on any given night we could have anybody that might be able to do that. Tonight was his night, and I’m happy it was his night tonight.”