County rivalry: Goldsboro boys, Eastern Wayne girls complete regular-season sweep

By Rob Craig
Published in Sports on December 13, 2006 1:47 PM

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Goldsboro coach Randy Jordan told his team this game against Eastern Wayne was like a heavyweight championship bout, with both teams throwing their best punches.

In the end, it was the Cougars and Eric McLean who delivered the knockout blow as Goldsboro topped visiting Eastern Wayne 71-66 on Tuesday night.

The Cougars were led by Daquan Joyner, who nearly recorded a triple-double with 19 points, 14 rebounds and seven blocks. Tim Kornegay added 17 with seven steals while McLean finished with 14 points.

"McLean really stepped up and directed our offense and hit some big foul shots," said Jordan.

Eastern Wayne got a game-high 23 points -- including five three-pointers from future Richmond Spider Darryl Cowan and 12 points from Lamar Davis.

Seven days after blowing out Eastern Wayne 82-56, Goldsboro needed some big plays to come away with the victory.

"We almost squandered the lead, but we executed down the stretch," said Jordan, whose team led by as many as 17 in the second half. "We made some big plays offensively."

With Goldsboro leading 65-54 with 2:31 remaining, Eastern Wayne went on a 9-1 run to pull to within 66-63 following a steal and layup by Davis.

Two free throws from McLean pushed the lead back to five with 44 seconds to play, but Eastern Wayne still had one last punch to throw.

After a three-pointer from Cowan spun out, he raced down the court, came away with a steal and drained a three to pull the Warriors to within two at 68-66 with 12 seconds left.

"Darryl Cowan did an outstanding job right there at the end for us," Eastern Wayne coach Marvin Bowman said.

Joyner was then fouled and made one of two from the line.

Eastern Wayne turned it over on the ensuing inbounds pass and Goldsboro threw the ball into McLean who was immediately fouled.

McLean pumped his fist into the air, clapped his hands and then sank both free throws to seal the victory.

"I just knew I had to make them," said McLean. "I had to knock them down and I did. I was confident."

Goldsboro had hung on for its seventh victory in a row to improve to 7-1, but the result came a lot harder then anyone had anticipated.

"Our guys gave it a valiant effort," Bowman said. "We did a lot better job taking care of the ball tonight than we did the last time we faced Goldsboro."

Taking care of the ball allowed the Warriors to give the Cougars their first serious test since an opening night loss to Kinston.

Eastern Wayne handled the Goldsboro press nearly flawlessly in the first quarter as the Warriors jumped out to a 14-4 lead and led 22-13 at the end of one quarter.

"I realized after last game they were going to (full-court press) basically the whole game," Bowman said. "I thought our kids adjusted to that tonight."

Joyner got Goldsboro on track in the second quarter.

The future East Carolina Pirate showed off his skills to the ECU staff in attendance by scoring nine points in a 10-2 run that pulled Goldsboro to within one at 24-23.

At halftime, Eastern Wayne still hung onto a 31-29 lead.

In the third quarter, Goldsboro went on runs of 11-2 and 10-0 to take the lead and push it to 17 at 54-37 and seemingly put the game out of reach.

"We felt we had taken their best punch," Jordan said. "Little did we know though, they had one more punch left in them."

Goldsboro withstood Eastern Wayne's final attack and dropped the Warriors to 1-7 on the season. Despite the loss, Bowman found reasons to be very pleased with his team's performance.

"The effort is there," said Bowman. "We're getting a lot closer, night in and night out. As soon as everyone gets on the same page we're going to start knocking off some people."

In girls action, Eastern Wayne was able to jump on winless Goldsboro 19-9 at the end of the first quarter and won 50-39.

"This is a tough place, and we knew Goldsboro would come out and play hard," Eastern Wayne coach Brent Holland said. "We're very happy to get out of here and get a win."

The Warriors only needed four players to scratch the scoring column to pick up the win. Brittani Billups recorded a double-double with 25 points, 15 rebounds and four blocks. Yasmine Washington also scored in double figures with 13 points.

"(Yasmine) was very aggressive," Holland said. "She really looked for her shot."

Goldsboro was led by Kianna Williams, who scored 14 points.

Coming off an ugly 43-31 loss last Friday at North Lenoir in which Eastern Wayne turned the ball over 38 times, the Warriors took much better care of the basketball against Goldsboro. Eastern Wayne turned the ball over 15 times for the game -- including just five times in the second half.

Taking care of the ball and playing with an intensity that was missing Friday night, enabled Eastern Wayne to continue to build a lead that would grow as big as 17 in the second half.

"A lot better tonight than it was Friday night," said Holland of his team's intensity. "But the girls should play that hard against Goldsboro."

Goldsboro would never get any closer than 10 in the second half and fell to 0-7 on the year while Eastern Wayne improved to 3-5.

Boys game

Eastern Wayne 22 7 10 27 -- 66

Goldsboro 13 18 23 17 -- 71

EASTERN WAYNE (1-7)

Darryl Cowan 3 5 2-2 23, Lamar Davis 6 0 0-0 12, Darren Bennett 4 0 0-0 8, Jenieri Cyrus 3 0 1-2 7, William White 2 0 2-2 6, Darius Wilder 2 0 1-2 5, Orlando Midgette 1 0 1-4 3, Darhan Zahill 1 0 0-0 2. TOTALS -- 22 5 7-12 66.

GOLDSBORO (7-1)

Daquan Joyner 8 0 3-7 19, Tim Kornegay 6 0 5-6 17, Eric McLean 1 2 6-6 14, Burnie Best 3 0 0-6 6, Jameson Wellington 2 0 1-2 5, Tim Hobbs 1 0 2-2 4, Tremé Boone 1 0 2-3 4, Antonio Green 1 0 0-0 2. TOTALS -- 23 2 19-32 71.

Girls game

Eastern Wayne 19 9 10 12 -- 50

Goldsboro 9 6 11 13 -- 39

EASTERN WAYNE (3-5)

Brittani Billups 8 0 9-13 25, Yasmine Washington 5 1 0-0 13, Eboni Reid 2 0 2-4 6, Zhanea Charles 3 0 0-2 6, Noelle Kelly 0 0 0-2 0. TOTALS -- 18 1 11-21 50.

GOLDSBORO (0-7)

Kiana Williams 3 2 2-2 14, Danielle Irby 2 1 0-0 7, Carmille Early 2 0 3-4 7, Johneshia Maye 1 0 1-2 3, Zeara McDuffie 1 0 0-0 2, Millicent Kornegay 1 0 0-0 2, Tiffany Burden 0 0 2-2 2, Victoria Williams 0 0 2-4 2. TOTALS -- 10 3 10-14 39.