Experienced Chargers overpower Rosewood

By Ryan Hanchett
Published in Sports on November 26, 2008 1:46 PM

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Youth-laden Rosewood took the floor for its season opener on Tuesday evening against Wayne Country Day.

The visiting Chargers quickly capitalized on the Eagles inexperience. Wayne Country Day kept Rosewood off the scoreboard in the opening quarter and cruised to a 71-24 victory.

"We didn't use a lot of gimmicks tonight on defense, we just went out and played good half-court man-to-man," said WCDS head coach Terry Jones, whose team posted a second consecutive first-quarter shutout. "Our guys got some traps in early, and they played with a lot of toughness."

The Chargers led 36-6 at halftime.

With just eight players dressed for the game, Jones did not have a lot of substitution options which led to an eventual 50-point advantage.

"We are going to take this game for what it was," said Eagles head coach Daniel Mitchell. "It was a chance for us to get on the floor and get some game experience ... a chance for us to get a game tape and see what we have to fix."

Floronta Winn paced the balanced Wayne Country Day offense with 16 points. Tim Hobbs added 15 points and grabbed a team-high eight rebounds. Reco McCarter scored 11 points and Josh Gregory added 10 points to round out the Chargers in double figures.

Every active player on the Wayne Country Day sideline scored in the contest.

"We don't have a lot of guys, really only three on the bench and those guys play junior varsity and varsity games," said Jones. "But all of our guys are talented and they all can contribute in some way."

Cody Harris paced the Eagles with seven points. James Harris added five points and grabbed four rebounds.

"When you graduate all five starters, there are always questions going into the next season," said Mitchell. "We wanted to look at some of the young guys and we got to do that tonight. We haven't set our rotation yet and we really don't know how everyone fits in."

The Eagles (0-1 overall) will continue their learning process when they battle Midway after the Thanksgiving holiday break.

Wayne Country Day (5-1) travels to Raleigh to battle Word of God Academy on Friday.

"They are a great team, and for some of these guys it will be the biggest game they have ever played," said Jones. "We want to get after it on defense and play with the tenacity that we showed tonight."