Warriors snap No. 9 Falcons win streak at 12
By Andrew Stevens
Published in Sports on January 20, 2010 1:46 PM
PIKEVILLE -- Calm, cool and under control.
Eastern Wayne held off a late Charles B. Aycock comeback and knocked down key free throws in a 52-48, Eastern Carolina 3-A Conference road win on Tuesday night.
The Warriors closed the third quarter on a 12-3 run and took a 35-31 lead into the fourth quarter.
Artimeus Taylor scored on three consecutive possessions for the Golden Falcons and his jump shot tied the game at 39-39.
Cerrell Davis' layup off Will White's assist put Eastern Wayne ahead 45-41 with a little more than two minutes to play. Aycock climbed to within 47-45 on Dontay Gills' free throws.
The Golden Falcons (13-2 overall, 2-1 ECC) faltered on critical possessions and missed shots around the basket hampering their comeback attempt. The loss snapped Aycock's 12-game winning streak.
"I was just thinking how many second and third shots we missed, and how many what seemed like to us simple shots were missed," said Golden Falcons head coach David West. "But, we're not on that floor. Those kids were working hard to get those shots to go in and it just wouldn't go in.
I'm not going to second guess why those shots didn't go in. It might look easy, but when you've got five guys clawing all over you that's a tough shot to make."
The Warriors went 5 for 6 at the free throw line over the final 33 seconds to seal the victory.
"I told our kids we were going to have to make our free throws," said Eastern Wayne head coach Marvin Bowman. "The last game we played we were 11 for 25 from the free throw line, and I thought that was very important tonight that we did step up and we knocked down free throws."
Both teams pushed through a sloppy first half in which the two rivals combined for 27 turnovers. Gills scored back-to-back layups just before the end of the second quarter to give Aycock a 21-19 lead at the break.
"I didn't ever think we got untracked and credit Eastern Wayne for that," said West. "They like to play a deliberate, more slow-paced game than we do. Everybody in the building knew we wanted to run. I just didn't think we ran real smart."
Will White led the Warriors (7-6, 2-1) with 14 points and Lamar Best provided nine points. Gills paced the Golden Falcons with 14 points and Isaac Ryals and Taylor each had 10.
Eastern Wayne entertains Southern Wayne on Friday night, while Aycock plays host to Triton.