Southern Wayne gets redemption shot

By Ryan Hanchett
Published in Sports on February 22, 2013 1:47 PM

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DUDLEY -- Southern Wayne gets a shot at redemption.

The Saints advanced to the Eastern Carolina 3-A Conference tournament championship with a 58-55 victory over Charles B. Aycock on Thursday evening.

Southern Wayne faces top-seeded Triton in the finals at Eastern Wayne today -- a rematch of last year's title game won by the Hawks. Tip-off is 7:30 p.m.

"We are obviously excited to be back in this position," Southern Wayne head coach Dwight Smith said. "Last year we came up six points short, so hopefully this year we can make the plays necessary to get a different result."

The Saints (16-7 overall) made just enough plays to slip past the Golden Falcons.

Jamiel Price and Ronnell Outlaw connected on a pair of early 3-pointers and helped Southern Wayne take a 12-2 lead midway through the first quarter. C.B. Aycock (13-12) settled down after a timeout, but was forced to play from behind the rest of the night.

"We did not do a good job of closing out on their shooters early," C.B. Aycock head coach Steve Moats said. "We knew coming in that (Outlaw and Price) were good shooters, but we still failed to find them in our zone and they hit some big shots."

Neil Clark energized the Golden Falcons off the bench with eight points in the second quarter. The Saints led 30-26 at halftime, but the momentum was squarely with the Golden Falcons.

Southern Wayne extended its lead back to double digits midway through the third quarter when Price hit a jump shot and Angelo Burden followed with a putback.

"In the second quarter we stopped moving in our offense," Smith said. "C.B. Aycock made a little run and closed in and it forced our guys to go back to playing our game, which we did in the third quarter."

Southern Wayne put the game away at the foul line in the fourth quarter and kept at least a two-possession lead. C.B. Aycock forward Cameron Johnson sank a 3-pointer with 13 seconds left to make the score 58-55, but the Saints ran out the clock.

Burden led the Saints with 15 points and eight rebounds. Outlaw tallied 14 points and Price added 13.

Clark paced the Golden Falcons with 18 points. Johnson added 13 points. Michael Williams finished with 12 points and 11 rebounds. C.B. Aycock shot just 9-for-21 from the free throw line as a team.

"That is the game right there," Moats said. "Missed free throws. In the end, Southern Wayne made more than we did."