Aycock shakes off slow start in county game

By Andrew Stevens
Published in Sports on January 7, 2009 1:46 PM

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PIKEVILLE -- The superlatives talented, deep, defensively sound and committed to rebounding can be used to describe a handful of boys' basketball teams in the Class 3-A Eastern Carolina Conference.

Now you can include Charles B. Aycock in that conversation.

The Golden Falcons shook off a slow start by turning up the intensity defensively and on the glass before blowing away county rival Rosewood 72-27 in non-conference play on Tuesday evening.

The rout was Aycock's second blowout of the Eagles in less than a month and the Golden Falcons' final dress rehearsal before Friday's home game -- and ECC opener -- against Wilson Beddingfield.

Rosewood forced three Aycock turnovers in the first four minutes and led 8-3 on James Harris' jumper. Molonza Hayes trimmed the deficit with a 3-pointer and after Cody Harris scored for Rosewood, layups from Khendra Reid and Hayes tied the game at 10-10.

The Eagles never led again.

The Golden Falcons cranked up the defensive pressure and forced 13 first-half turnovers, while outrebounding Rosewood 23-10 during the first two quarters.

C.B. Aycock (11-3 overall) closed the first quarter on a 10-1 run and led 20-11 after the first eight minutes. The Eagles (3-7) pulled to within 20-12 on Will Beasley's free throw until the Golden Falcons erupted for 14 unanswered points. Rosewood trailed 34-12 before it could catch its breath.

Isaac Ryals scored six of his team-high 13 points during that stretch, which had the Eagles reeling. Aycock led 38-13 at halftime.

"Overall, it was a pretty good defensive effort," said Golden Falcons head coach David West. "We were a little slow to start, but once everybody started to understand Rosewood was going to give us a great shot we had to play basketball. We answered that call."

Aycock continued to crash the glass during the second half, which created second and third scoring opportunities offensively. The solid rebounding limited Rosewood's ability to chip away at the lead. The Golden Falcons finished with a 39-16 rebounding advantage.

Hayes finished with 12 points and Tyheim Pitt added 10. Brandon Winford provided nine points. Reid contributed eight and Devon Newsome had seven. West knows in order to be successful in the highly competitive ECC he'll need balanced-scoring from his club every night.

"Any coach would like to have balanced scoring," said West. "We have a couple of guys on our team that are capable of scoring 20 or 30 at any time, but they also have four or five assists next to their name. We play team ball and these guys hear it all the time and they've bought into that."

Rosewood committed 25 turnovers, scored more than 10 points in a quarter just once and failed to have a player score in double figures. Harris scored a team-high nine points and Cody Harris had eight.

The Eagles travel to Arendell-Parrott Academy tonight before opening Carolina 1-A Conference play at home Friday against Ayden-Grifton.

"We had a hard time executing on the offensive end and it kind of snowballed from there," said Rosewood head coach Daniel Mitchell. "It's hard to take some positives from it right now. We're not going to see a team that good in the conference, so hopefully we can use this and try and get ready for the conference."