CB Aycock downs South Johnston

By Andrew Stevens
Published in Sports on February 18, 2010 1:46 PM

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PIKEVILLE -- Make Dolton Bledsoe work for everything.

Charles B. Aycock chased, pressured and harassed the South Johnston sharp shooter for four quarters on Wednesday night.

Bledsoe finished with a game-high 28 points, but it was the Golden Falcons who walked away with a 53-42 win in the Eastern Carolina 3-A Conference boys' basketball tournament.

Aycock faces Southern Wayne in Friday night's final in Dudley.

Bledsoe shot just 12 for 24 from the floor, including a 4 for 12 effort in the first half. Golden Falcons defenders kept a hand in his face, followed him closely off screens and forced him to penetrate to the basket. No other player scored in double figures for the Trojans.

"You're not going to stop Bledsoe," said Aycock head coach David West. "You might derail him a time or two. He has the sweetest shot when he gets set of anybody I've ever seen. The only way we found to defend him is to make him put the ball on the floor and try to disrupt him.

"We just committed ourselves to getting out there and getting a hand in their face."

The Golden Falcons led 34-13 less than midway through the third quarter before South Johnston reeled off 12 unanswered points to pull within 34-25. Aycock took a 36-27 advantage into the fourth quarter.

The margin swelled to 45-31 early in the fourth, but the Trojans (10-14 overall) refused to go away. Bledsoe scored a pair of layups and knocked down a 3-pointer to trim the deficit to 47-38 with fewer than two minutes left.

The Golden Falcons sank four of six free throws in the final 11/2 minutes to seal the victory. Tyheim Pitt paced Aycock (21-3) with 14 points and Brandon Winford finished with 10.

"We had to grind and that's in part due to South Johnston," said West. "They play real good zone defense and they know how to play it. They've been well coached at it and they execute it well."

The Golden Falcons split a pair of regular-season contests with Southern Wayne with each team winning on the road. The two contests were decided by a combined five points.

"Anytime you can make it to a championship game of anything it really doesn't matter who you play," said West. "To play Southern Wayne, they've got a lot of tools and they've got a lot of talent. The last two games we've played ... the games were spectator friendly as far as excitement goes anyway.

"I don't think that Friday night's going to be any different."