Wilson, South, North, and Rayen, all schools long gone, are represented with matching banners, but two banners sit next to each other on the left hand side.

A maroon and silver banner, representing the Chaney Cowboys, alongside a yellow and navy banner for the East High Golden Bears, which hangs along a silver and blue banner from the Panthers era.

After both teams had a delayed start to their seasons, Chaney and East met Tuesday evening to kick off Steel Valley Conference play in 2021.

It started off as a back-and-forth contest, as the historic rivals exchanged leads before the Cowboy’s entered halftime with a 35-31 lead.

Correspondent photo / Robert Hayes -- East senior Jonathan Clay pulls down a defensive rebound.

Chaney used a thunderous 18-0 run in the third quarter, and limited the Golden Bears to only four points in the entire period to walk off the court with a 84-54 victory on the road.

“We needed this win, we’ve had a really tough schedule, we played four teams in the top ten in states, so we’ve took some lumps,” Cowboys coach Marlon McGaughy said following the win. “But, we’ve been close every game, so we’re getting better.”

Senior Quincy Jones kicked off the massive scoring run for Chaney with six straight points, with junior Clive Wilson following up with a pair of buckets to make it a 44-33 game in favor of the road team.

The Cowboys (3-4) beared down and induced several East turnovers, which led to fast-break points.

Halftime adjustments made the difference.

Correspondent photo / Robert Hayes -- Chaney senior Quincy Jones throws up a layup during the second half at East. He scored a game-high 21 points in the win.

“We just decided to pick our hustle up on defense and share the ball more and run up and down the floor,” Jones said. “It just makes it more fun, just getting our confidence up, building that team chemistry, and just getting the team chemistry going.”

A dunk off a steal from sophomore Jason Hewlett put Chaney up 49-33 and defined the Cowboy’s second half attack. With 1:19 to go in the quarter, East sophomore D’Juan Waller hit a jumper from the left side to give the Golden Bears their first field goal of the second half.

Wilson, who ended with 12 points and provided a lot of physical strength in the paint for Chaney felt that forcing turnovers plays to his team’s strengths.

“It makes it 100 percent easier because we’re a running team,” he said. “Fast breaks is what we do, so if we get a steal and throw it down court, we get an easy layup.

“We get pumped up and then the other team, they lose their morale, so we gotta take it all from there.”

Golden Bear (3-5) seniors Jonathan Clay gave a valiant effort with 20 points, alongside Ruben Talley who had 14. East assistant coach Jason Ray felt that his team a good effort in the first half.

“Give credit to Chaney, they brought the fight to us, and we didn’t play as well as we know that we can in the second half,” he said. “That’s what hurts us the most more than anything, that’s what hurting us tonight.

“But it’s a marathon on a sprint, and we’ll get back out tomorrow afternoon.”

Some of the teams the Cowboys have seen early on include Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary, Medina, Brush, and Minnesota Prep Academy which has battle tested an experienced roster.

“We played them early, if we would have played them a little bit later, I think it would have been okay,” McGaughy said. “But when you play teams like that early on, we got four games in and they got 12, so it takes a little bit of adjusting.

“It gets you ready for the tournament, a lot of teams won’t play the teams that we play this year, so it’ll make us better, stronger, and know how to win in the end.”

Jones tallied a game-high 21, with fellow senior Cam Lawrence recording 17. The Cowboys shot a blazing 64 percent from the field on 32-50 shooting, while East ended with 20-44 for 46 percent.