Eastern Wayne girls stage another comeback

By Allen Etzler
Published in Sports on February 11, 2015 1:48 PM

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aetzler@newsargus.com

The Eastern Wayne girls basketball team has been riding some pretty thin lines of late.

But coach Phil Gray doesn't have any complaints.

After all, they're 22-0.

Despite another slow start Tuesday evening, the Warriors made up a double-digit deficit to defeat county and Eastern Carolina 3-A/4-A Conference rival Charles B. Aycock, 53-47.

"I think these slow starts are good for us, because it is teaching us that no matter how bad we are down we can still come back if we just play our game," Gray said.

After the Golden Falcons' Myleah Jones dominated the paint early, the Warriors' Naheria Hamilton came off the bench and gave her team a spark. She immediately made her presence felt with two layups in the post and two blocked shots on the defensive end of the floor.

"I know Myleah is a great player so when I got in there I knew I couldn't have any fouls and that I couldn't let her score," Hamilton said. "It's fun to go up against a good player like her because it pushes you to get the best of each other."

Hamilton finished with 14 points, 11 rebounds and eight blocks -- despite not starting due to senior night missing more than half the third quarter for foul trouble.

The Warriors struggled to handle the Golden Falcons' potent halfcourt offense, but once they moved into full court man-to-man pressure they began to force turnovers and build a lead.

Jones and point guard Taylor Daniels had Herculean efforts to keep CB Aycock hanging around. Jones scored 23 points and grabbed 14 rebounds, while Daniels added 13 points.

Jasmine Covington took advantage of being guarded by a post player for much of the game, and dropped in 14 points and grabbed eight rebounds.

"With us playing four guards, most teams are going to have a big on a guard, and it's hard for a big to defend one of our guards and we try to take advantage of that," Gray said.