The Charles Henderson Trojans began 2019 with a win, but more importantly they began area play 1-0 with a 60-46 win over Greenville on Friday night in Troy.

The Trojans never trailed in the game, but had to battle in final minutes to earn the area win.

“It’s nice not to have to climb out of a hole,” said Charles Henderson head coach Doug Branson. “You have to protect your home court and that is what we did tonight. They (Greenville) are a good team. They came in here fired up.”

Terrell Sistrunk scored a quick seven points in the opening quarter and the Trojans jumped out to an early lead over the Tigers before taking a 15-6 lead into the second quarter.

Sistrunk scored six more in the second quarter. The Trojans had a 7-0 run at the end of the first half and went into the locker room at halftime up 29-14.

“Defensive stops and rebounds,” Branson said. “In the first half we were able to limit their opportunities, which allowed us to get out into transition.”

The Tigers bounced back in the second half and scored the first 11 points in the third quarter to cut the Trojans’ lead down to four at 29-25.

The Tigers were able to dwindle their deficit down to as little as one point in the quarter, before the Trojans went into the fourth leading 46-35.

“We talked at halftime and I said ‘Who are we?,’” Branson said. “Are we a team that can handle this run that is coming at us? They made one. We settled down and finally got into the right spot and got to the rim to finish the game off.”

After the Tigers got back to within two points, the Trojans embarked on a 13-1 run to close out the game.

“That’s really nice,” Branson said. “I think that comes from the games we played. When we have been in games when we are up four or five points, we have won a few and we have lost a few. All we had to do was settle in and take care of the basketball. If we could make the extra pass, we were going to get easy baskets and we did.”

Sistrunk finished the game with 17 points, while Marcus Grant finished with 13.

The Trojans will be back in action on January 8 when they travel to take on Rehobeth.