Prep hoops: Warriors come up short at North Lenoir

By Rob Craig
Published in Sports on December 10, 2006 2:01 AM

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LaGRANGE -- Despite the fatigue of playing its third game in four days, Eastern Wayne still had a chance to pick up a road victory at North Lenoir in the closing seconds Friday evening.

"We wanted to make the three," said Eastern Wayne coach Marvin Bowman. "We've got something we do on the perimeter to get one of the wing players open."

The Warriors got Darryl Cowan a decent look, but it was a three-point attempt from about 30 feet.

The shot hit the rim and bounced off, sealing the 55-52 victory for the North Lenoir at Wooten Gymnasium.

"It's tough to play back-to-back, but I thought they handled it very well," said Bowman of his team.

Cowan led Eastern Wayne (1-6) with 13 points while Lamar Davis added 11. Darius Wilder finished with a double-double -- 10 points and 11 rebounds.

"I thought Darius played well for us tonight," said Bowman. "He hit the boards hard."

North Lenoir (2-5) got 15 points from Joe Whitfield and 14 from Dusty Davis.

The Hawks took a nine-point advantage, 21-12, at the end of the first quarter thanks to an 11-2 run which included back-to-back three-point shots from D.J. Artis and Davis.

In the second quarter, Eastern Wayne's aggressive man-to-man pressure held North Lenoir to just seven points. The Warriors trailed 28-25 at halftime.

Even against the fresher Hawks, Eastern Wayne continued to play hard at both ends of the court and trailed just 40-37 at the end of three quarters.

"I tried to substitute quite a bit tonight to maybe get those starters some rest so they could get their legs under them," said Bowman.

The Warriors looked as if they had run out of gas late in the fourth quarter when they fell behind 52-45 with just 1:24 to play.

With one last burst of energy, the Warriors made their final run.

A steal and layup by Cowan pulled the Warriors to within five. Then, a steal by Darian Cahill and a three-pointer from Davis cut the deficit to two at 52-50 with 36 seconds to go.

After Da'Rico Jones made one of two from the line, Cowman made another layup to cut the lead to 53-52 with just 22 seconds left. Dusty Davis was fouled and sank both free throws before Cowan's game-tying miss provided the final margin.

"We played well enough to win," said Bowman. "This is one of those games where we have to put behind us."

The Eastern Wayne girls suffered the same fate as their counterparts, falling 43-31 to the Hawks.

Against North Lenoir's full-court pressure, the Warriors failed to find a way to break it and were forced into 38 turnovers.

"Thirty-eight turnovers ... that's terrible," said Eastern Wayne coach Brent Holland. "We've gone over it. We know how to beat a press, but we still aren't executing our half-court press breaker and full-court press breaker."

The lone bright spot for Eastern Wayne (2-5) was Brittani Billups, who shook off a poor shooting night to record a double-double with 10 points, 17 rebounds, six steals and three blocks.

"There were enough shots missed that (Brittani) should pull down 17 rebounds," said Holland. "Her intensity level is high. Some of our other girls have to step up and match her intensity level."

Yasmine Washington reached double figures also for the Warriors, scoring 11 points including knocking down three shots from behind the arc.

Ciara Crawford led North Lenoir with 12 points, including the Hawks' first eight points of the game.

Eastern Wayne's sloppy ball handling began in the first quarter when it turned the ball over eight times and trailed 15-8.

The Warrior defense shutdown North Lenoir in the second quarter as the Hawks missed their first nine shots from the floor. By the time North Lenoir finally hit its first field goal with 1:53 to play in the half, Eastern Wayne had chipped the lead down to two at 19-17.

The Hawks led 21-17 at the break.

The second half was nothing but frustration for Holland and his team. The Warriors turned the ball over 11 times in the third quarter and fell behind by 36-23.

Things only got worse in the fourth as Eastern Wayne turned the ball over on its first 10 possessions and didn't even attempt a shot until 4:23 to play.

"I don't know if it was games back-to-back," said Holland on his team's fatigue. "We played at South Central Thursday night and we had a tough game rivalry-wise against Goldsboro Tuesday night."

North Lenoir opened up its biggest lead of the night at 20 before the Warriors finally scratched the scoreboard on Washington's three-pointer with 2:22 remaining making it 43-26.

"I don't know if (the three games this week) took something from their legs or what, but I didn't see a lot of emotion or desire out there tonight," said Holland.

Boys game

Eastern Wayne 12 13 12 15 -- 52

North Lenoir 21 7 12 15 -- 55

EASTERN WAYNE (1-6)

Darryl Cowan 6 0 1-3 13, Lamar Davis 1 2 3-4 11, Darius Wilder 5 0 0-0 10, William White 3 0 0-0 6, Dariyon Whisenhunt 2 0 0-0 4, Darren Bennett 1 0 2-3 4, Jenieri Zyrus 1 0 0-0 2, Darian Cahill 0 0 2-2 2. TOTALS -- 19 2 8-12.

NORTH LENOIR (2-5)

Joe Whitfield 5 1 2-3 15, Dusty Davis 0 3 5-6 14, Laborris Poole 4 0 2-2 10, Da'Rico Jones 3 0 2-5 8, D.J. Artis 2 1 0-0 7, Parris Lee 0 0 1-2 1. TOTALS -- 14 5 12-18 55.

Girls game

Eastern Wayne 8 9 6 8 -- 31

North Lenoir 15 6 15 7 -- 43

EASTERN WAYNE (2-5)

Brittani Billups 4 0 2-5 10, Yasmine Washington 1 3 0-0 11, Noelle Kelly 2 0 0-0 4, Eboni Reid 1 0 0-0 2, Lindsey Frederick 1 0 0-0 2, Jasmine McLamb 1 0 0-0 2, Jasmine Middleton 0 0 0-2 0. TOTALS -- 10 3 2-9 31.

NORTH LENOIR

Ciara Crawford 5 0 2-2 12, Helena Davis 2 0 4-5 8, Carla Miller 2 1 0-0 7, Brittany McPhail 2 0 3-4 7, Marissa Lanier 1 1 0-0 5, Kendra Sherrod 1 0 0-0 2, Timon Jones 1 0 0-0 2. TOTALS -- 14 2 9-11 43.