C.B. Aycock boys defeat Eastern Wayne

By Andrew Stevens
Published in Sports on February 2, 2013 11:12 PM

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PIKEVILLE -- Charles B. Aycock has quietly become the hottest team in the Eastern Carolina 3-A Conference.

The Golden Falcons put together perhaps their most complete game of the season in a 55-39 win over rival Eastern Wayne on Friday night. The victory was Aycock's fifth straight in Eastern Carolina 3-A Conference play. The Golden Falcons haven't lost since a 66-55 setback on Jan. 16 at Southern Wayne.

"We played our best game of the year tonight," Aycock head coach Steve Moats said. "It is a nice time of the year to really be coming on. We do feel like we're peaking at the right time. Finding ourselves is a big part of and I think we've grown together as a team during the course of the season."

Shakel Powell and A.J. Mundle both finished with 14 points for the Golden Falcons. Michael Williams supplied 10 points. Micah Smith paced the Warriors with 13 points.

Eastern Wayne started strong offensively and Malik Richards' dunk gave the Warriors a 10-2 lead. Aycock (11-9, 6-3 ECC) answered with a 10-2 run of its own to the game at 12-12 after one quarter.

The Golden Falcons switched out of their man-to-man defense and into a 2-3 zone and began creating turnovers while attacking the rim offensively. The transition to the zone defense also led to Aycock's dominance on the backboards as the Golden Falcons tallied 11 second-quarter rebounds. Williams' offensive putback at the buzzer gave Aycock a 24-17 lead at halftime.

"Defensively, I give the guys all the credit in the world on that one because we don't practice the 2-3 zone a whole lot," Moats said. "The 2-3 is not really our forte. Our forte is man-to-man and they were killing us in man. The 2-3 worked and we stuck with it."

The Warriors (6-15, 2-7) never appeared comfortable offensively against the Golden Falcons' zone and were held to eight third-quarter points. The margin swelled to 39-25 after three quarters.

"We never got comfortable offensively," Eastern Wayne head coach Glen Darden said. "We didn't do the things we practiced. We didn't attack the basket and we didn't box out. All those things we go over in practice. If we don't execute it on the floor it is what it is."

Aycock continue to control glass in the fourth quarter and Williams finished with nine rebounds while Mundle grabbed eight. Collectively, the Golden Falcons pulled down 33 rebounds, including 22 on the defensive end.

"We were aggressive on the glass," Moats said. "We felt like we had a physical advantage. A.J. being a senior is just a real wide body, and Mike is just a pretty big kid. We just tried to pound it in on the inside offensively, and we wanted to shut off the base line on defense and make them take jump shots."

The Warriors play host to Triton on Tuesday while Aycock entertains Southern Wayne on Feb. 8.