Trinity dominates Wayne Country Day in Tyson's homecoming

By Allen Etzler
Published in Sports on January 31, 2015 11:08 PM

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By ALLEN ETZLER

aetzler@newsargus.com

Since transferring from Goldsboro to play at Trinity Christian in Fayetteville, Alonzo Tyson hasn't had many opportunities to play in front of his family and friends.

Friday night was in last chance to be in front of his hometown, and with everyone watching, he wanted to put on a show.

On the first offensive play of the game, Trinity point guard Dennis Smith Jr., tossed an alley-oop to Tyson cutting back door, who caught it and tried to bring the entire goal down with the finish. The only problem was the ball bounced about 12 feet up in the air and harmlessly to the ground.

Despite the miss, Tyson quickly showed the sold out crowd at Wayne Country Day just how athletic he was, and by the end of Trinity's 78-31 throttling of the Chargers, he would put together quite a highlight reel, finishing with 15 points, six rebounds and two blocks in one half of play.

"It was great to be able to play in front of my mom, she was here, my family was here, my friends were here, friends of friends. It was cool," Tyson said. "I approached it just like I approach any other game, like it's my last game. Just trying to get a W."

The game was utter domination from Trinity. After Shahim Muhammed finished a layup on the first possession for the Chargers, the Crusaders went on a 28-2 run in the final 7:30 of the first quarter. Their full-court trap forced eight first quarter turnovers from a Chargers team, that prides itself on its passing.

And while playing without star forward Joel Davis (stomach virus), it left a Wayne Country Day team that was rolling two weeks ago with more questions than answers.

"I don't know what just happened," WCDS coach David Flowers said. "Who was that team? Those weren't my guys. We just looked like a deer in the headlights."

Smith, rated the No. 1 point guard in the nation for the class of 2016, proved he is everything he is billed to be. In barely more than a half of play, the junior scored 14 points, grabbed eight rebounds, dished eight assists, had nine steals and two highlight reel blocks. His best play was an alley-oop he bounced off the floor to himself to finish with a two-handed dunk.

"He's not too bad," Trinity coach Heath Vandevender joked modestly. "It's interesting because he's our best offensive (scorer) and he's our point guard, but he's so willing to give the ball up... He can take a team out of their game on defense, so we give him a lot of free reign to try and make plays and that's what he does."

Without Davis, the Chargers lacked a shot blocker and an inside presence to stop Trinity's post play. Vandevender knew it was something the Crusaders could take advantage of with a team that likes to play above the rim.

"It's a shame they didn't have Joel, because we were looking for playing against him, he's a good player," Vandevender said. "When we found out, we told our guys they weren't really going to have any shotblockers on the court and we could work the ball into the post easier."

It didn't seem to matter, because the Crusaders were hitting from the outside as well, where the Chargers struggled to make anything from behind the arc.

Flowers knows even with his star Davis playing, the Chargers don't win that game. He also knows that with Davis having an ailing knee along with the sickness, he may be playing without his star for the forseeable future.

"The truth is, we don't know what we're going to have from Joel right now," Flowers said. "These other guys have to figure out how to play without him on the court. With three weeks left in the regular season you're supposed to be clicking and right now me and (assistant) coach (Claude) Waters have to go back to the drawing board."