Moats sends message, players respond

By Ryan Hanchett
Published in Sports on December 19, 2012 1:47 PM

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PIKEVILLE -- Charles B. Aycock head coach Steve Moats felt like he needed to send a message to his team Tuesday night.

Moats came across loud and clear when he sat down his starters in the second quarter against Eastern Carolina 3-A Conference foe Cleveland. The result was spirited play by the bench and renewed vigor from the starters in the second half as the Golden Falcons rolled to a 70-56 victory.

"I was not happy with the pace of the game and I thought we were just going through the motions," Moats said. "I went to my bench guys and told them their sole job was to pick up the pace. They did that and we played much better from that point on."

Cleveland started strong in a half-court offense built to slow the game to a crawl. The Rams trailed 11-9 after the first quarter, but took the lead with a 6-0 run to open the second quarter. That is when Moats turned to the bench and the Golden Falcons picked up the speed.

The reserve unit grabbed a 23-22 lead at the intermission.

The second half was all C.B. Aycock as Michael Williams poured in points from a variety of spots on the floor. Williams scored 22 of his game-high 30 points in the final 16 minutes.

"Michael is a great scorer and I thought we did a good job of going through him," Moats said. "He scored in transition, he hit a few jumpers, made his foul shots ... he really did everything well in the second half."

Cleveland made things interesting with an 8-0 run early in the fourth quarter that cut the C.B. Aycock lead to six points, but a dunk by Williams sealed the Golden Falcon victory.

A.J. Mundle added seven points and seven rebounds in the win. Gregory Williams and Javarris Williams each finished with six points.

Jesse Olmstead led Cleveland (2-9 overall, 0-2 ECC) with 14 points. Bobby Stenburg finished with 12 and Chase Jackson added 11.

C.B. Aycock (6-5 overall, 1-1 ECC) plays host to Greene Central on Thursday.