Pickle Winter Classic -- Goldsboro boys claim tournament crown

By Andrew Stevens
Published in Sports on December 28, 2013 11:34 PM

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astevens@newsargus.com

MOUNT OLIVE -- Russell Stephens has made plenty of great memories inside Kornegay Arena, then College Hall, during his days on the Mount Olive College campus.

His Goldsboro squad helped him make one more on Saturday night.

The Cougars held off Southern Vance's rally and held on for a 64-60 win in the boys' finals of the inaugural Southern Bank/Mt. Olive Pickles Winter Classic.

Myron Carmon led Goldsboro with 22 points and Jayln Moore contributed 19 points. Tournament MVP Rasheen Artis had 11.

Ty-Traveon Roberts paced the Raiders with a game-high 23 points.

"It's great for our program to win this tournament here at Mount Olive," said Stephens, an MOC Athletics Hall of Famer. "We won our conference tournament here last year and it's nice to be able to come back and win this tournament. Terry Jones and his staff put on a great tournament and this gives us a little boost going into conference play."

The Raiders reeled off 10 unanswered points in the first quarter during a run that was fueled by Cougars' turnovers.

Late in the first quarter, Carmon began to warm up from the outside. The sophomore point guard knocked down three 3-pointers in the opening half and had 13 points during the first two quarters.

"Myron was really big for us at times," Stephens said. "We haven't knocked down too many 3's lately and he was able to hit four for us tonight which was huge."

Southern Vance was held to five second-quarter points and trailed 28-19 at the half.

The Cougars (8-4 overall) increased the tempo in the third quarter to generate good looks at the basket. The result was eight straight points capped by Carmon's 3-pointer that pushed the margin to 42-27.

"We were able to force them to miss some shots which allowed us to get out in transition and get some easy baskets," Stephens said. "That helped us open up a little bit of a lead."

The Raiders (4-4) slowed the pace and methodically chipped away at the lead with a 10-0 run that cut the deficit to 42-37 entering the fourth quarter.

After Southern Vance pulled to within 44-41 early in the final quarter, Moore provided seven points during a critical 9-0 run that gave Goldsboro some breathing room at 51-41.

"Jayln Moore really stepped up for us," Stephens said. "He made some big baskets for us late and really helped us close this game out."

The Cougars sank seven of 10 free throws in the final 90 seconds to help fight off the Raiders' comeback attempt.