Greenfield jousts WCDS in boys' CPIC tournament final

By Andrew Stevens
Published in Sports on February 20, 2010 11:06 PM

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WILSON -- Sensing his team had one last run left in it, Wayne Country Day head coach Terry Jones reminded his team before the start of the fourth quarter that they weren't done yet.

That run never came.

Greenfield rolled past the Chargers 74-53 on Saturday night in the finals of the Coastal Plains Independent 1-A Conference boys' basketball tournament.

Trailing 53-38 to start the fourth quarter, Wayne Country Day struggled to get stops on the defensive end. DeAndre Alston's 3-pointer pushed the margin to 62-43 with fewer than three minutes gone in the fourth quarter.

"We've come back from down 20 here and there," said Jones. "But the grave reality is, why did you get yourself there in the first place? If we can ever get a hold of that we're going to be a great team in the playoffs next week."

Down by just nine at halftime, Wayne Country Day was outscored 42-30 over the final two quarters.

"We started out well. I don't know if the guys started getting gassed or what," said Jones. "We weren't making the rotations that we needed. Time and time again we've been there."

The Knights opened the second half on a 17-8 run, turning a 32-23 halftime score into a 49-31 cushion. Brian Richardson, the tournament's most valuable player, scored 14 of his game-high 27 points in the second half.

"We had our spurts here and there but in the long run our spurts weren't bigger than their spurts," said Jones.

The Chargers held a 13-10 lead late in the first quarter before Greenfield reeled off seven unanswered points to close the quarter. Richardson's layup gave the Knights a 28-18 lead midway through the second quarter.

Jeremy Jeffers finished with 17 points for Greenfield and Sam Hughes added 15.

Tim Hobbs scored 26 for Wayne Country Day and Reco McCarter had 15.

The Chargers will play host to an undetermined opponent in the first round of the N.C. Independent Schools Athletic Association 1-A playoffs on Tuesday night. The 16-team field will be unveiled today.

"We better do something fast," said Jones. "There are a lot of teams out there that nobody really sleeps on. Worst case, you make it into those quarterfinals and teams one through eight are going to be scary."