Third-quarter turnovers fuel S. Central comeback

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on January 25, 2014 11:22 PM

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Beware of the third quarter.

And South Central's defensive pressure.

Interim Eastern Wayne head varsity boys' basketball coach Chris Roberts issued those warnings during halftime Friday evening. His cautionary tone became evident when the teams returned to the court.

The Falcons outscored the Warriors 20-8 in the third quarter and escaped with a 60-58 victory in Eastern Carolina 3-A/4-A Conference play. South Central swept the regular-season series.

One glaring aspect of the Warriors' fourth loss in conference play this season was the absence of Micah Smith. The junior power forward suffered a first-quarter ankle injury and did not return.

"Losing Micah Smith was key and I think that got us out of synch a little bit," Roberts said. "The catalysts of our team are Malik (Richards) and Micah. They're two great bigs who can score and rebound.

"We haven't been able to catch a break. We just got Malik back from an ankle (injury) and now we've got to nurse Micah, get him well."

Junior Ezekial Martin compensated for Smith with a double-double -- 14 points, 11 rebounds. Quavis Holloman delivered 18 points, while Malik Richards supplied 17 points, seven rebounds and two blocked shots.

Martin's old-fashioned three-point play capped the first quarter, and sparked a 19-10 run that lasted 9-plus minutes. Martin and Richards combined for 12 second-quarter points as the Warriors grabbed a 30-21 lead at intermission.

South Central (14-3, 6-1) scored seven of the first eight points to start the second half. Eastern Wayne didn't help its cause with seven turnovers and watched its nine-point lead turn into a 39-38 deficit late in the third period.

"We weren't running our press breaker," said Roberts, whose team had 19 turnovers on the night. "We were just kind of throwing the ball in, which wasn't what we had practiced. I knew (SC) Coach (Chris) Cherry was going to come with some kind of pressure to get his team going to get them into the game.

"We have to do a better job of running our inbounds stuff, being smart and taking care of the ball. I told the guys there is no use of getting (defensive) stops if we keep turning the ball over."

Eastern Wayne climbed to within 45-44 with about 41/2 minutes remaining in regulation. The teams traded scoring possessions until South Central reeled off six points in a half-minute stretch.

Holloman's 3-pointer closed the deficit to 56-51, but the Warriors struggled to pressure the Falcons, who hit just enough free throws to seal the road win. Holloman's 3-pointer with 0.2 seconds accounted for the final score.