Hawks get past Warriors

By News-Argus Staff
Published in Sports on December 11, 2005 2:13 AM

• Print
• Email

North Lenoir's boys and girls basketball teams brought impressive records to Eastern Wayne on Friday night.

After a thrilling 89-85 victory in the boys game, the Hawks left with a pair of victories over the Warriors before a capacity crowd at New Hope.

The Lady Warriors fell to an undefeated North Lenoir team 48-33 despite outscoring the Lady Hawks in the second half.

The North Lenoir girls scored the first 13 points and held Eastern Wayne scoreless in the first quarter, until the Lady Warriors' Yasmine Washington scored on a lay-up as the first quarter ended.

The sharp-passing Hawks were led in scoring by guard Katie Maloney with 15 points and center Carla Miller with 11.

"For the last three or four years, North Lenoir has had one of the best girls basketball teams in the area," Warriors coach Brent Holland said. "They play a tough style of basketball and we are not ready to play that kind of basketball. I cannot fault the girls, they played hard and never quit."

Eastern Wayne outscored North Lenoir 21-18 in the final half. Noelle Kelley led Eastern Wayne in scoring with 11 points, tallying eight in the fourth quarter. Yasmine Washington chipped in with nine points.

The North Lenoir boys made seven, 3-pointers in the first quarter as both teams electrified the crowd with hot shooting. The Eastern Wayne boys answered with four makes from long range and trailed only 26-22 after one period of play.

"They shot the ball well in the first quarter. I am proud of my guys. A lot of teams would have folded early," Eastern Wayne coach Marvin Bowman said.

Eastern Wayne started the second quarter denying the outside shot to North Lenoir, only to see the Hawks work the ball inside and surge to a 36-24 lead forcing a Warrior timeout with 5:28 left in the first half. After the timeout, the Warriors caught fire behind the 3-point shooting of Lamar Davis and the inside play of Reco McCarter. Davis and McCarter scored 21 of Eastern Wayne's 29 points in the second quarter.

The Warriors pulled within two points on a steal and a dunk by McCarter with only 30 seconds left before halftime. After a North Lenoir turnover, the Warriors' Darryl Cowan hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer and Eastern Wayne went to the locker room with a 51-50 lead in a high-scoring affair.

Eastern Wayne broke ahead in the third quarter, blocking four North Lenoir shots -- jumping out to a 64-56 lead.

"I told the team at halftime to make a better defensive effort in the third quarter," Bowman said.

With a large crowd urging both teams on, the see-saw battle continued in the fourth quarter. The Hawks created several turnovers with a full-court zone trap. Using six steals, North Lenoir led by seven with less than three minutes to play.

"They changed their press on us and we did not respond as quickly as we should have," Bowman said.

The game took a bizarre turn in the final minute of play. Trailing 85-81, Cowan stole the ball at midcourt and North Lenoir was whistled for an intentional foul trying to prevent an easy break away lay-up. Cowan made both free throws, and McCarter scored the game-tying basket on a short jumper with 33 seconds left.

McCarter committed his fifth personal foul as the Hawks brought the ball up the court on their next possession. As he entered the bench area, McCarter was assessed a technical foul for pulling his shirt out.

Bowman was dismayed by the call.

"Reco was actually putting his shirt in. I know a lot of people will think Reco said something to the official, but Reco is a good kid and would not do that," Bowman said.

Still the Warriors had a chance to win in the end. The Hawks converted 2-of-4 foul shots after the personal and technical foul to lead by two and also were awarded the ball out of bounds. The Warriors forced a turnover but a final shot fell short, and North Lenoir escaped with the win.

"Our guys showed a lot of resiliency. We thought we had one more shot at the end but did not make it." Bowman said.

The Warriors travel to Goldsboro to play the Cougars Tuesday night, while North Lenoir hosts Charles B. Aycock.

Girls game

North Lenoir 13 17 12 6 -- 48

Eastern Wayne 2 8 11 10 -- 33

NORTH LENOIR (7-0)

Brittany McPhail 2 0 0-0 4, Keshonnia Miller 0 2 0-0 6, Timon Jones 0 0 0-2 0, Katie Maloney 6 0 3-4 15, Lashura Spruil 2 0 0-0 4, Helena Davis 3 0 0-0 6, Briana Brignoni 1 0 0-0 2, Carla Miller 4 1 0-0 11. TOTALS -- 18 3 3-6 48.

EASTERN WAYNE (0-7)

Noelle Kelley 4 1 0-0 11, Lyddia Hirschy 1 0 0-0 2, Dionne Smith 2 0 0-0 4, Yasmine Washington 3 1 0-0 9, Sherelle Burt 1 0 2-3 4, LaNiece Sims 0 0 1-4 1. TOTALS -- 11 2 3-7 31.

3-point goals -- North Lenoir 3 (C. Miller, K. Miller 2), Eastern Wayne 2 (Kelly, Burt). Turnovers -- North Lenoir 17, Eastern Wayne 24 .Total fouls -- North Lenoir 4, Eastern Wayne 7. Fouled out -- none. Technical fouls -- none.

Boys game

North Lenoir 26 24 13 26 -- 89

Eastern Wayne 22 29 19 15 -- 85

NORTH LENOIR (6-1)

Adrian Brewer 1 5 0-0 17, Eddie Cox 1 0 1-2 3, Emmanuel Rosber 1 0 3-4 5, Samuel Edwards 6 3 7-10 28, Omar Jones 4 1 9-10 20, Mike Morgan 2 0 0-0 4, Jackie Sutton, Jr. 6 0 0-0 12. TOTALS -- 21 9 20-26 89.

EASTERN WAYNE (4-3)

Lamar Davis 3 4 2-2 20, Darryl Cowan 3 3 6-6 21, Reco McCarter 10 0 1-2 21, Landon Downes 2 0 1-2 5, Florenta Wynn 1 0 1-1 3, D'Adrian Worrell 5 0 3-3 13, Jason O'Neal 1 0 0-0 2. TOTALS -- 25 7 14-16 85.

3-point goals -- North Lenoir 9, (Brewer 5, Edwards 3, Jones), Eastern Wayne 7, (Davis 4, Cowan 3). Turnovers -- North Lenoir 11, Eastern Wayne 14. Total fouls -- North Lenoir 13, Eastern Wayne 17. Fouled out -- McCarter (EW), Technical fouls -- McCarter (EW).