Eastern Wayne advances to East Regional semifinals

By Ryan Hanchett
Published in Sports on March 2, 2013 11:22 PM

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It has been more than a year since Eastern Wayne lost on its home floor.

The Warriors are going to have to try to bottle that momentum for their next game.

Eastern Wayne used a big third quarter to pull away from archrival Charles B. Aycock en route to a 77-58 win in the third round of the N.C. High School Athletic Association 3-A state playoffs on Friday night.

The Warriors advance to play West Craven in the East Regional semifinals at Crown Coliseum in Fayetteville on Thursday.

"I asked the girls before the game if any of them had ever played at the coliseum," Eastern Wayne head coach Tyrone Wagner said. "Not one of them spoke up. I told them that I had never coached in the coliseum either and I wanted us to have that experience as a team."

That experience looked to be in doubt in the first half against the Golden Falcons.

Charles B. Aycock opened the game with two consecutive made baskets and jumped out to a 5-0 lead after just two minutes of play. Wagner called a timeout and settled his team down. The Warriors responded with a 10-3 run and grabbed the lead.

Eastern Wayne (28-1 overall) extended its advantage to 31-25 with two minutes left in the first half, but failed to put the Golden Falcons away. C.B. Aycock answered with back-to-back baskets by Myleah Jones and cut the deficit to 31-29 at the intermission.

"We were right where we wanted to be at halftime," C.B. Aycock head coach Laura Romo said. "Unfortunately, we had a bad two minute stretch in the third quarter and things started to get away from us."

Rajuana Boyette sank a pair of buckets to begin the third quarter and started a 12-4 Eastern Wayne run that increased the Warriors lead to double-figures. Eastern Wayne led 51-40 after the third quarter and pulled ahead by 20 points with four minutes to play.

"We are a deep team and try to use that to our advantage," Wagner said. "Both teams were in foul trouble so it made our depth even more important. We were able to keep fresh bodies on the floor and keep up our defensive intensity."

Shontell Monk led Eastern Wayne with 14 points and six rebounds. Jasmine Covington added 13 points. Boyette finished with 10 points.

C.B. Aycock was paced by Ashley Darden's 13 points and eight rebounds. Kayla Newsome added 12 points. Taylor Daniels and Jones each finished with 10 points for the Golden Falcons.

C.B. Aycock finished the season 14-14 overall.