Hot-shooting Murphy leads Goldsboro to share of league crown

By Andrew Stevens
Published in Sports on February 10, 2013 1:51 AM

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Julius Murphy drained one of his nine 3-pointers on Friday night, cracked a wry smile and jogged back down the court.

Even Murphy couldn't believe what he was seeing.

Murphy poured in a career-high 31 points and Goldsboro sank 16 3-pointers in a 104-61 rout of Princeton inside Norvell T. Lee Gymnasium. The Cougars clinched a share of the Carolina 1-A Conference regular-season championship for the third time in the last four years.

Goldsboro's Damarian Henderson finished with 15 points and Jaylen Moore supplied 11. Lonzia Tyson added 10 points.

Michael Wooten led the Bulldogs with 15 points. Nicholas Cobb and Jamal Morgan each had 10 points.

The Cougars (15-6 overall, 8-0 CC) led 16-14 after the opening eight minutes and caught fire in the second quarter. Murphy knocked down four of his nine 3-pointers in the second quarter and Rasheed Jackson also added a shot from beyond the arc.

"I just shot with confidence," Murphy said. "I made the first couple and I just figured I was having a good shooting night. I just kept shooting and they just kept coming. It felt great that my teammates were trusting me to keep shooting."

Goldsboro shot 16 for 33 from 3-point range and turned the ball over just nine times. The Cougars led 49-32 at halftime and outscored Princeton 55-29 in the second half. Goldsboro hit six more 3-pointers during the final two quarters.

"Tonight we shot the ball extremely well," Cougars' head coach Russell Stephens said. "Princeton runs that 2-3 zone extremely well and took away our inside guys for a while and we just shot the lights out. We were riding off tonight and it was one of those nights where everything was going right for us."

Goldsboro entertains Spring Creek on Tuesday, while the Bulldogs (9-13, 3-5) play host to Ayden-Grifton.