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Prep Hoops: Muscles Flexed

It had all the makings of a Hollywood movie.<br />Underdog vs. Giant. Good vs. Evil. Friend vs. Foe. <br />However you want to look at, Saturday&rsquo;s matinee matchup with Mt. Carmel and Eldorado had just about everything a movie plot could ever want.<br />All Eldorado wanted was a win.<br />The No. 10 ranked Eagles in Class 2A got a pair of 3-pointers from senior Ethan Partridge as they upset No. 2 Mt. Carmel 50-48 in front of a packed house.<br />Partridge finished the game with a double-double as the 6-foot-5 senior forward had 16 points and 10 rebounds to help Eldorado (16-1) to the victory.<br />Jackson Marcotte had a team-high 12 rebounds for Mt. Carmel (12-3) and helped give the Aces a 45-41 lead with 3:14 to play in the fourth quarter when he converted on a coast-to-coast bucket off an Eldorado turnover. <br />That lead for Mt. Carmel was short lived.<br />Jacob Traxler (10 points) provided a basket to get the Eagles to within two at 45-43 and then with 48 seconds to play, Partridge hit his first of two 3-pointers, to get EHS to within one at 47-46.<br />At that moment, that&rsquo;s when Eldorado head coach Josh Bradley felt the game was won, despite his team being down by one.<br />&ldquo;We needed someone with Braden Attebury on the bench and step up and make a play for us,&rdquo; Bradley said. &ldquo;He hit that three to bring it back to one and it was like the belief in our basketball team went to &lsquo;all right, we are going to win this basketball game.&rsquo; For a senior to do that and a kid that works as hard as he does, that&rsquo;s good to see him have that kind of success on a stage like this.&rdquo;<br />Partridge wasn&rsquo;t done.<br />After Marcotte made one of two free throws to make it a 48-46 Mt. Carmel lead with 28 seconds to play, Partridge found his home on the arc in front of the Eldorado bench, pulled up and buried his second triple of the game with 14 seconds to play to give the Eagles a 49-48 lead.<br />In the winding seconds, Mt. Carmel had two turnovers, including 18 in the game and Eldorado got a free throw from Kale Oglesby with 3.3 to play to make it 50-48.<br />&ldquo;They&rsquo;re the No. 2 ranked team in the state and you&rsquo;re coming into their place and probably things are against you, but our kids played tough, battled hard, handled some adversity when things weren&rsquo;t going our way and we were able to keep our guard up and come away with a win,&rdquo; Bradley said.<br />Mt. Carmel closed out the first quarter with an 11-4 lead, but the tide quickly changed for the Aces and found themselves down 27-19 at halftime after being outscored 23-8 in the second quarter. Mt. Carmel had 12 first half turnovers, including six in each of the first two quarters, including a technical foul assessed to the Aces&rsquo; leading scorer and SEMO recruit Justin Carpenter, who was held to nine points in the game.<br />Mt. Carmel head coach Tyler Buss felt despite his team digging itself out of the first half hole, certain changes on his part could have prevented that.<br />&ldquo;I think in that first quarter we taxed ourselves a little bit. I think we got too charged up, too amped up with some of the events going on and I think that really wore us down in the second quarter. We did not do things as fast or as sharp as we needed to in that second quarter and give Eldorado a lot of credit, they just keep coming at you and they play really, really hard. <br />&ldquo;We just gave up too many points in that second quarter and really dug ourselves a hole that we were able to fight out of, but you just can&rsquo;t put yourself down like that against a team like Eldorado.&rdquo;<br />In addition to Partridge and Traxler, Ray May added eight points for the Eagles, while John Meredith finished with five points. Braden Attebury and Max Kasiar each had four points, while Oglesby tacked on three.<br />Austin Rager netted 11 for Mt. Carmel, while Bret Doan added eight points. Brayden Stipp finished with five and Blake Golden had three points.<br />Eldorado 48, Carmi-White County 32<br />On Friday night, Eldorado picked up a 48-32 win on the road at Carmi-White County, where Attebury netted a game-high 28 points for the Eagles, while Partridge tacked on 13 points in the win.<br />Eldorado returns to action Friday when they play host to Edwards County and will travel to Norris City-Omaha-Enfield Saturday night.<br /><br />Michael Dann covers prep and college sports for the Harrisburg Daily Register and Eldorado Daily Journal. Follow him on Twitter: <br />@spydieshooter.<br /><br />Eldorado 04 23 08 15 &mdash; 50<br />Mt. Carmel 11 08 16 15 &mdash; 48<br /><br />Eldorado: Meredith 1 2-2 5, Oglesby 1 1-2 3, Partridge 5 4-5 16, Traxler 4 2-2 10, Attebury 2 0-0 4, Kasiar 2 0-0 4, May 2 4-4 8. Totals: 17 13-16 50.<br />Mt. Carmel: Stipp 1 3-5 5, Doan 3 0-1 8, Rager 5 1-3 11, Marcotte 4 4-6 12, Carpenter 3 3-5 9, Brown 0 0-1 0, Golden 1 0-0 3. Totals: 17 11-22 48.<br /><br />3-point FG: EHS 3 (Partridge 2, Meredith), MTC 3 (Doan 2, Golden). Fouls: EHS 20, MTC 16. Rebounds: EHS 26, MTC 20. Turnovers: EHS 15, MTC 18.<br /><br />Eldorado 10 19 09 10 &mdash; 48<br />Carmi-White Co. 11 07 02 12 &mdash; 32<br /><br />Eldorado: Partridge 5 2-2 13, Attebury 11 3-3 28, Traxler 2 0-0 4, Kasiar 1 1-2 3. Totals: 19 6-7 48<br />Carmi-White Co: Rice 2 2-2 8, Simon 2 0-0 4, Northcott 1 0-0 2, Black 2 2-2 6, Lamp 3 1-2 8, Pollard 2 0-0 4. Totals: 12 5-6 32.<br /><br />3-point FG: EHS 4 (Attebury 3, Partridge), CWC 3 (Rice 2, Lamp). Fouls: EHS 10, CWC 11.