Eastern Wayne boys rally past CBA

By Andrew Stevens
Published in Sports on January 5, 2013 11:06 PM

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Eastern Wayne had already seen a precious Eastern Carolina 3-A Conference win slip through its fingers this week.

The Warriors couldn't afford to let it happen again.

Eastern Wayne used runs of 13-0 and 12-0 to rally past Charles B. Aycock, 54-50, and claim a pivotal league win at New Hope on Friday evening. Quavis Holloman led the Warriors with 13 points off the bench and Jamal Shuford added 10 points.

Michael Williams paced the Golden Falcons with 12 points and six rebounds. A.J. Mundle finished with 10 points and eight rebounds.

After squandering a four-point lead with two minutes to play on Wednesday night at Southern Wayne, the Warriors found a way to close out the Golden Falcons.

Aycock used tenacious ball pressure to create turnovers throughout the first half. The Golden Falcons executed well in their half-court offense and closed the second quarter with 10 consecutive points.

Eastern Wayne (5-9 overall, 2-1 ECC) generated defensive pressure of its own in the second half and forced Aycock into turnovers that resulted in transition opportunities. The Golden Falcons committed 12 second-half turnovers and were held to five points in the third quarter.

Malik Richard's three-point-play capped a 12-0 run that pulled the Warriors to within 35-31.

"We turned up the defense," Eastern Wayne head coach Glen Darden said. "I told our guys at halftime that there was a good crowd here and they need to play like they've been practicing. I told them they shouldn't fall apart because they're down.

"I was able to keep fresh legs in the game in the second half and our bench gave us a big lift."

Shakel Powell's layup increased Aycock's lead to 42-37 early in the fourth quarter. The Golden Falcons didn't score again for more than four minutes as the Warriors reeled off 13 straight points to take a 50-42 lead with 31/2 minutes left.

"Eastern Wayne deserves a lot of credit," Aycock head coach Steve Moats said. "They did a good job of executing and taking away the things that we wanted to do. This is the second straight game we have executed well early on and then we've failed to execute late in the game."

Williams' layup with fewer than two minutes to play trimmed the deficit to 52-48, but a pair of turnovers in the final 70 seconds derailed the Golden Falcons' comeback hopes. Kamone Best added a wild, running layup to help seal the win for Eastern Wayne.

"We just have to come out and play hard from the tip off and keep our same intensity and get our transition game going," Darden said. "If we can get everyone involved I think we'll be Okay."

The Warriors visit Triton on Monday. Aycock travels to Southern Wayne on Jan. 16.