Eastern Wayne men fall short at Kinston High

Published in Sports on January 12, 2005 1:57 PM

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KINSTON - It's not always how you look getting there, it's the end result.

That was the case Tuesday night as the Kinston Vikings defeated the Eastern Wayne Warriors 42-41 in the Class 3-A Eastern Carolina Conference boys basketball Tuesday night.

"We didn't play well," Kinston head coach Wells Gulledge said. "You have to take this one and take the positives from the win and take everything that was negative, and go back to work on those type of situations."

Kinston sophomore Miguel Starkey gave the Vikings the win, when he made two free throws after being fouled by the Warriors' Chris Campbell with 4.7 seconds remaining for what proved to be the final score.

The Warriors (5-8, 4-4 ECC) got the final shot by Theo Givens from near midcourt, but it fell short as the final horn sounded.

"You can call us lucky, but you have to call us winners," Gulledge said. "Our kids fought to the end, it wasn't pretty. I am happy for the win, but am very displeased with the way we played in front of our fans tonight."

Tied at 33 entering the fourth quarter, the Warriors opened up with an 8-2 run to take a six-point lead at 41-35 with 4:56 remaining on a basket by Givens.

"I felt like we played good defense and they did too," Eastern Wayne head coach Marvin Bowman said. "I give them credit for moving the basketball the way they did. They made us work a little bit on defense."

The Vikings (8-6, 4-3) erased the six-point deficit with a 7-0 run over the final 4:56 for their fourth consecutive win, and seven in the last nine outings. It's the second consecutive one-point win for the Vikings.

Starkey and C.J. Sherrod led the final push combining for the final seven points. Sherrod had four and Starkey had three.

Though Bowman acknowledged the hard play of both teams, he left no doubt to his feelings in other areas.

"I thought the officials were terrible," Bowman said. "That's just getting to the point. The last call he made on Chris Campbell wasn't even close. It was a physical game. Kinston likes to hold .and I even addressed the officials about the holding. It was tough game.

"They won, and I can't say they deserved to win."

The two teams were tied at 13 at the end of the first quarter and Kinston led 29-23 at halftime.

"We just battled and scrapped," Gulledge said. "We were just a step slow tonight."

The Vikings were led by Sherrod with 11 points, eight coming in the fourth quarter.

Kinston faces Southern Wayne Friday at home, while Eastern Wayne travels to South Central.

In the women's game, The Vikings erased a nine-point second quarter deficit behind a 20-5 run in the third quarter and held on for a 39-36 win.

Trailing by nine with 1:15 remaining in the second quarter, the Vikings started their run.

They outscored the Warriors 11-2 to tie the game at 23 with 3:50 remaining in the third quarter on a basket by Courtney Smith.

The lead changed hands three times on the next three possessions before Kinston took the lead for good with 2:29 remaining in the third quarter on a basket by Krystal Suggs.

Kinston (7-6, 5-2) increased its advantage to eight at 34-26 at the end of the third quarter.

Six different players scored for Kinston in the third quarter led by Krystal Fuller and Suggs with six and five points respectively.

The biggest difference in the game was Kinston's ability to shut down Eastern Wayne's Sierra King who had eight of her 11 points in the first half.

Kinston was led by Fuller with a game-high 12 points.

The Warriors (5-8 overall) exited the game 4-4 against ECC opposition.