Goldsboro boys top Rosewood, stay perfect in league play

By Andrew Stevens
Published in Sports on January 23, 2013 1:47 PM

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Goldsboro didn't just claim sole possession of first place in the Carolina 1-A Conference on Tuesday night. The Cougars did it in dominating fashion.

Goldsboro used its size and tenacious ball pressure to overpower Rosewood in a 78-51 rout inside Norvell T. Lee Gymnasium. Senior center Damarian Henderson finished with 15 points and junior big man Lonzia Tyson provided 12 points, eight rebounds and four blocks.

The Eagles' Jyonte Raynor led all scorers with 20 points and Josh Davis added 10.

Both teams persevered through a first quarter filled with turnovers, but Goldsboro scored the final nine points to take an 18-11 lead. Tyson asserted himself with eight second-quarter points and four rebounds.

"Lonzia's length definitely gives teams problems because if you don't have a guy that size it is hard to simulate that in practice," Cougars' head coach Russell Stephens said. "You have to have a guy like that to practice against to know how to get the shots off. His timing is getting a lot better and he's blocking a lot of shots."

Goldsboro's relentless ball pressure forced Rosewood into an up-tempo game and the Eagles got out of synch offensively. Rosewood routinely hurried jump shots, forced passes into tight spaces and committed seven second-quarter turnovers.

The Cougars closed the half on a 9-0 run and led 36-20 at the break.

"I thought there was a key stretch where we were in too big of a hurry because of the pressure defense," Eagles' head coach Daniel Mitchell said. "We took some jump shots that led to long rebounds and they were able to get out and run. We talked about not wanting to get into a track meet with them and it is hard to simulate that kind of tempo in practice."

Rosewood (11-3 overall, 2-1 CC) began the third quarter with an abundance of energy and Dee Mabry's layup capped a 9-0 run that pulled the Eagles to within 36-29. Goldsboro countered with hot shooting from beyond the arc as Rasheen Artis and Henderson both knocked down 3-pointers.

Artis scored 11 points and Myron Carmon had 10.

Rosewood was held to eight points during the final six minutes of the third quarter as the lead swelled to 51-37.

Goldsboro (10-6, 3-0) executed well in its half-court offense both on the interior and from long range while draining nine 3-pointers. The Cougars earned their fifth consecutive win and are now in the driver's seat in the Carolina 1-A with seven games remaining in the regular season.

"We know the ball has to go inside with Lonzia and Henderson," Stephens said. "The good thing about Henderson is he can go inside and he can extend the defense. I think especially in the second half we did a good job of freeing those guys up and getting some easy looks."

Goldsboro visits Spring Creek on Friday, while the Eagles play host to North Duplin.