Goldsboro boys beat North Duplin

By Andrew Stevens
Published in Sports on January 28, 2012 11:11 PM

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Playing as a cohesive unit rather than five individuals, Goldsboro had the look of a team in synch on the basketball court Friday evening.

Head coach Patrick Reynell had been waiting all season to see it.

The Cougars shared the ball, got big man Damarian Henderson involved early and rolled to a 79-52 win over Carolina 1-A Conference foe North Duplin inside Norvell T. Lee Gymnasium.

Rather than waiting to feed the ball to Henderson in the paint, as Goldsboro has done recently, the junior forward emerged as a focal point of the offense right away. Henderson scored nine of his game-high 24 points in the first eight minutes, which helped the Cougars build a 19-12 lead.

"Our ability to play inside-out was great," Reynell said. "I know every coach says it, but it is so hard to get kids to do it sometimes. We played really unselfish, and had 23 assists (as a team) and that's a good sign."

Goldsboro (13-6 overall, 5-1 CC) dictated the tempo of the game all night and consistently beat the Rebels down the floor in transition. Henderson and Moses Ramsey each drained 3-pointers as part of a 10-3 run that increased the Cougars' advantage to 44-27 at halftime.

"Our last goal we go over before every game is that we dictate the pace of the game," Reynell said. "We don't want to play fast all the time. I thought Moses set the tone tremendously. He knew when to push and when to release, and when we didn't have anything we didn't mind pulling it out and running through an offensive set."

The lead grew to 62-35 after three quarters as 11 different Goldsboro players got into the scoring column. Sophomore center Lonzia Tyson provided valuable minutes off the bench for the Cougars and grabbed 15 rebounds. Quavus Holloman contributed 12 points and Ramsey had 10.

"Lonzia is very important," Reynell said. "I thought tonight he showed he can rebound. The way he attacked the glass that was a really positive sign for a sophomore."

Tyler Royal led North Duplin (4-11, 1-5) with 13 points and Breyon Johnson had 10. The Rebels never wavered despite enduring a number of hard fouls.

"Our kids kept competing to the last second and I'm extremely proud of their effort," North Duplin head coach Ricky Edwards said. "Goldsboro shot the ball well and we couldn't seem to stop their fast break."

Goldsboro entertains Rosewood on Tuesday, while the Rebels visit Princeton.