Mature Golden Falcons improve to 10-2 overall

By Andrew Stevens
Published in Sports on December 19, 2008 1:46 PM

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Maybe someone will listen now.

Throughout the season, Charles B. Aycock head basketball coach David West has talked about his team's maturity and how much they've grown the past two seasons.

West doesn't have to talk anymore.

The Golden Falcons completed a string of three consecutive victories in a 72-hour span, including two on the road, with a 68-25 non-conference triumph over Rosewood on Thursday evening.

"We have 14 guys that are willing to take it up a notch and reach as high as we can," said West. "If whoever was in the gym didn't see (our maturity) tonight they didn't open their eyes."

C.B. Aycock (10-2 overall) opened the game on a 10-0 run that included seven Rosewood turnovers and was capped by Khendra Reid's thunderous dunk. The Golden Falcons' full-court pressure played a role in the majority of the Eagles turnover woes.

"We came out and we were ready to play," said West. "Our intensity showed, our hard work showed, our discipline showed and our kids just took it them.

"The idea of that run and jump defense is points off turnovers and that's why we practice that thing so much."

Jacquez Raynor finally got Rosewood (3-6) on the board with just over four minutes to play in the opening quarter. Aycock closed the quarter with 11 unanswered points and led 21-2 after the first eight minutes.

The Golden Falcons rattled off 22 straight points to begin the second quarter before Trevor Cox's jumper gave Rosewood just its third and fourth points of the half. The Eagles committed 12 more turnovers in the second quarter and trailed 43-4 at the break.

"We just didn't show any fight at all," said Eagles head coach Daniel Mitchell. "Basically they took it to us and we just stood there and took it."

West subbed frequently in the second half and received quality minutes in return. Kyle LaFlamme scored a team-high 12 points and Matt Woodard added 10. Fellow reserves Daniel Lane, Devon Newsome, Brandon Winford and a host of others turned in solid defensive efforts.

Reid also scored 10 points for Aycock, Isaac Ryals provided nine and Molonza Hayes had seven.

"With this being our third game this week we had some tired legs and we had to spread it around to all of them," said West. "I was glad that we did get a chance to get all of our guys in and they all did play very quality minutes and they game some quality efforts."

Mitchell is hopeful his team can learn from the experience and continue to improve as it prepares for Class 1-A Carolina Conference play. Cody Harris and Will Beasley each had six points.

"Hopefully it's one of those things that we're going to learn from," said Mitchell. "Again, we just got outplayed in every area. Hopefully we can just try to use this to try and get better."

C.B. Aycock entertains North Lenoir on Jan. 2, 2009. Rosewood is the guest of the Golden Falcons on Jan. 6.