Greenfield boys seize control of CPIC 1-A race

By Andrew Stevens
Published in Sports on January 23, 2008 4:15 PM

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A night intended for making a statement quickly turned into one worth forgetting.

With Greenfield, the state's fourth-ranked Class 1-A independent school paying a visit on Tuesday evening, Wayne Country Day was hoping to prove it was worthy of its own spot at sixth in the latest poll.

Instead, the Chargers proved that a schedule full of lesser competition had failed to get them ready to face the elite private schools in the state. Greenfield (17-8 overall) led from start to finish and cruised to a 73-50 victory in the Coastal Plains Independent Conference contest.

"We wanted to use this as a stepping stone," Wayne Country Day head coach Terry Jones said. "In all honesty our schedule hasn't prepared us for a team of that nature. That's the type of program that we've got to pattern ourselves after."

The Knights harassed and pressured the Chargers (16-5, 3-1 CPIC) from the opening tip. Less than five minutes in, Wayne Country Day had turned the ball over eight times and trailed 10-2. Greenfield converted 17 Chargers turnovers into layups and dunks all night.

"Defensively they brought so much pressure at us," Jones said. "We've seen it a time or two, but night in and night we don't see that type of pressure. Greenfield is the type of team that they're going to capitalize on your mistakes and they're not going to make many."

Wayne Country Day's problems were only magnified when Reco McCarter picked up his third foul with more than six minutes remaining in the first half. McCarter watched the rest of the second quarter from the bench and Greenfield led 37-21 at the half.

"To have a kid like Reco get into early foul trouble that really hurt us," Jones said.

A pair of quick Wayne Country Day turnovers to open the second half allowed the Knights to build on their lead. Brian Richardson's dunk pushed the margin to 41-21.

With the lead, Greenfield was able to slow the pace of the game making it all the more difficult for the Chargers to chip away. Even Jones' decision to switch to 1-3-1 zone defense didn't seem to make much defense as Wayne Country Day spent most of the second half simply trading baskets with the Knights.

"It's very rare that a team is going to come out and put it down our throat and tell us you have to beat us," Jones said. "We gave up a lot of easy baskets in transition, but defensively they just shredded us apart. Our rotations were a little slow at times."

Floronta Wynn led the Chargers will 11 points and McCarter and Goldsboro transfer Tim Hobbs each scored 10. Greenfield's Brian McNair had a game-high 24 points.

Although the Chargers won't face many opponents the quality of Greenfield for a while, Tuesday night's home rout should serve as a healthy wake up call as to what awaits them in the postseason.

"We have no choice," Jones said. "We have to push ourselves even harder in practice and we've got to take advantage of every game that is on our schedule. That's all we can do."

Greenfield 18 19 15 21 -- 73

Wayne Country Day 4 17 15 14 -- 50

GREENFIELD (17-8)

Brian Richardson 4 1 5-6 16, Brian McNair 10 0 4-4 24, Faxton Barnes 2 2 2-2 12, Jarred Hinton 1 1 1-2 6, Darion Cahill 1 0 1-2 3, Damont Williams 2 0 2-3 7, Alex Draughan 3 0 0-0 6. TOTALS -- 23 4 15-19 73.

WAYNE COUNTRY DAY (16-5, 3-1)

Landon Case 0 1 0-0 3, David Wilson 1 0 1-2 3, Floronta Wynn 5 0 1-1 11, Jeff Franklin 1 0 4-7 6, Josh Gregory 0 0 3-4 3, Reco McCarter 3 1 1-2 10, Rashid Williams 0 1 1-4 4, Tim Hobbs 5 0 0-0 10. TOTALS -- 15 3 11-20 50.