EW girls avenge earlier ECC defeat

By Andrew Stevens
Published in Sports on February 5, 2014 1:48 PM

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astevens@newsargus.com

Revenge comes in all shapes and sizes.

Eastern Wayne served J.H. Rose a healthy dose of payback, 72-36, on Tuesday evening and avenged a two-point loss to the Rampants one month ago in Greenville.

Elondia Grant led Eastern Wayne with 20 points and Jasmine Covington supplied 14 points. Tianna Christopher contributed 12 points.

Jillian Ebron had 11 points for the Rampants.

Early on, the Warriors used aggressive ball pressure to force turnovers and disrupt Rose's offense. Eastern Wayne's full-court trap limited the Rampants' ability to set up their half-court offense.

The Warriors claimed a 16-1 lead in fewer than three minutes.

"The girls came out and they remember how we felt the last time we played Rose," first-year Eastern Wayne head coach Phil Gray said. "Rose came down and hit a shot to win with six seconds left. The girls didn't want that same feeling tonight, so they came out tonight a little fired up and with intensity."

Eastern Wayne (10-4 overall, 7-2 ECC) built a 34-17 lead by halftime and continued to attack in the second half despite playing with a sizeable lead. Nine different Warriors contributed in the scoring column and Eastern Wayne got 33 points from its bench.

"I'm trying to teach our girls that we're not going to be a one-man show," Gray said. "Everybody that is on the court is going to contribute in some kind of way."

The Warriors outscored Rose 24-2 in the third quarter to put the game out of reach as the lead swelled to 58-19.

Eastern Wayne visits D.H. Conley on Friday.