GHS goes cold at Glaxo tournament

By Gabe Whisnant
Published in Sports on December 29, 2005 2:12 PM

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RALEIGH -- The good news -- Goldsboro's boys outscored Seattle Prep in the second half and held the Panthers to only four points in the final three minutes and thirty seconds of play.

The bad news -- the Cougars, despite several chances to take a late lead, didn't score in the final three minutes as the Panthers held on to win 48-43 at historic Reynolds Coliseum in a game that proved to be a defensive struggle.

"We knew they were athletic. People told us they wanted to get up and down the court and run, and that's our game too," Goldsboro coach Randy Jordan said. "When two teams like that match up, that's usually not what happens. It ends up being a half court game, and that's what happened tonight."

Seattle Prep (8-1) moves on to face Linfield (N.J.) Christian Brothers in the 4-team, U.S. Challenge division championship game tonight at 7:20 p.m. Goldsboro will square off against Hampton Phoebus (Va.) in the third-place game at 2:20 p.m.

Goldsboro junior Daquan Joyner finished with a game-high 26 points, including a basket inside with three minutes left. Fellow junior Tim Kornegay, who was saddled with foul trouble in the first half, provided an assist on the play as the Cougars cut Prep's lead to 44-43.

Like most of the second half, Goldsboro (6-6) got stops and pulled down rebounds down the stretch, but never capitalized on the offensive end. After two Cougar misses, the Panthers' Nico Fearn made 2-of-2 to make it 46-43 with one minute left.

Goldsboro got one more possession and earned a trip to the free-throw line, but missed both attempts as Prep's Jordan Wheeler eventually put the game out of reach with two makes at the stripe -- pushing the score to 48-43.

"Two or three shot down the stretch and this is a different ballgame," Jordan said.

In the first half, Goldsboro struggled from the field and with turnovers offensively -- shooting just 34.8 percent and committing 12 miscues. Meanwhile, Kornegay, the Cougars' leading scorer with 18.7 points per game, picked up two fouls within the first minute of play and was forced to sit out the final 15 minutes of the first half.

Keyed by 12 points from Jordan Brandon and 10-of-12 free-throw shooting, the Panthers took a 30-21 lead into the break.

The Cougars didn't shoot much better in the second half, finishing at 35 percent for the game, but consistently stepped up their defense against a Panthers' team playing without leading scorer, 6-foot-11 center Spencer Hawes.

Unknown even to the tournament directors going into the game, Hawes, a University of Washington signee, did not show up for the tournament due to a recent ankle injury.

"I was really happy with how we persevered. We're playing without a key component to our team," Seattle Prep coach Michael Kelly said. "It was important for us to know we could win without him, and I think we did that despite not playing very well. We just grinded it out and got a win."

Kornegay eventually got his first points of the game with four minutes left in the third and finished with eight points and five rebounds in the second half. Kornegay helped take some of the scoring pressure off of Joyner as the Goldsboro guards did a much better job of taking care of the ball after intermission.

Despite never leading, the Cougars got the deficit down to 35-33 on a nice pass from Brandon Sampson to Joyner with two minutes left in the third and trailed by the same two-point margin at 37-35 heading into the fourth quarter.

In the third, Goldsboro committed just one foul after being whistled for 11 in the first half.

"We stopped reaching and started moving our feet defensively. When we do that, we're a pretty good defensive team," Jordan said.

"When we reach and get lazy, we get in trouble."

Prep, which shot 27 percent from the field in the second half, pushed the lead back up to six with four quick points to open the final quarter, but the Cougars never let the Panthers out of their sites. With solid defense and rebounding, Goldsboro got within three twice, before cutting it to one at 44-43 on Joyner and Goldsboro's final field goal of the game.

Despite the loss and inability to finish down the stretch, Jordan was pleased overall with his teams performance.

"I thought we played real hard for 32 minutes. I'm proud of the effort and I can't fault our kids," he said. "Hats off to Seattle Prep, they made the plays down the stretch when they had to."

Notes: The Panthers shot 15-19 from the free-throw line (78.9 percent), while the Cougars shot 9-16 (56.3 percent) ... Joyner and Kornegay, both averaging over 18 points per game, accounted for 79 percent of the Cougars' scoring ... Goldsboro is making its second appearance overall in the GSK tournament and first since 1983 ... The Cougars took the floor approximately 20 minutes after Kinston's shocking 45-43 win over nationally-ranked Montverde (Fla.) in the semifinals of the 8-team, Holiday Tournament.

34th Annual GlaxoSmithKline

Holiday Tournament

4-team, U.S. Challenge Bracket

(at Reynolds Coliseum, Raleigh)

Seattle Prep 17 13 7 11 -- 48

Goldsboro 11 10 14 8 -- 43

SEATTLE PREP (8-1)

Jordan Brandon 4 0 4-5 12, Nate Girma 2 0 0-1 4, Nico Fearn 2 0 2-2 6, Jordan Wheeler 2 0 2-2 6, Jordan Bremond 2 1 3-5 10, C.J. Cullen 1 0 0-0 2, Patrick Donnelly 0 0 2-2 2, Gerald Grissette 2 0 0-0 4, Jack Hanley 0 0 2-2 2. TOTALS -- 15 1 15-19 48.

GOLDSBORO (6-6)

Daquan Joyner 10 0 6-8 26, Tim Kornegay 3 0 2-4 8, Branden Herring 1 0 0-2 2, Burnie Best 1 0 0-0 2, Anthony Artis 1 0 0-0 2, Brandon Sampson 0 0 1-2 1, Tim Hobbs 1 0 0-0 2. TOTALS -- 17 0 9-16 43.

3-point goals -- Seattle Prep 1 (Bremond). Turnovers -- Seattle Prep 16, Goldsboro 19. Total fouls -- Seattle Prep 16, Goldsboro 20. Fouled out -- none. Technical fouls -- none.