Ice can't cool down Eastern Wayne, neither can CB Aycock

By Allen Etzler
Published in Sports on February 22, 2015 12:09 AM

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The snow from this past week kept kids out of school, but it couldn't keep Eastern Wayne's Micah Smith out of the gym.

Smith has been one of the hottest players in the area over the past four games, averaging more than 20 points per contest, and he didn't want to give his hot hand a chance to cool down.

Smith has dedicated himself to getting to the local YMCA each day and a little ice was not going to stop him. So, on Tuesday, Smith had to figure out how to drive his dad's truck through the ice that covered the previously salted asphalt roads.

"I'm used to driving a car, man," Smith said. "I'm not used to the truck. My dad told me to throw it in four-wheel drive, and I was like 'uh how do you do that?'"

He made it to the gym everyday over the break, spending two to three hours a day working on his game. The time must have paid off as Smith continued his hot streak by scoring 14 points in the Warriors 69-54 victory over Charles B. Aycock that gave Eastern Wayne the No. 1-seed for the 3-A portion of the conference heading into the state playoffs starting Tuesday.

Smith wasn't the only one going stir crazy with not being able to get to school or inside the gym for practices or the conference tournament.

Blake Poland was stuck inside bouncing off walls looking for a way to get some shots up. The sharpshooter resorted to hoisting long distance shots from his couch at his NERF basketball hoop.

Poland was able to get to the gym on Thursday, but Tuesday and Wednesday he was left with nothing but the NERF hoop.

"Man I couldn't wait to get in a gym," Poland said. "I was running through my house looking for stuff to do. I wanted to play."

Poland couldn't say how many threes he knocked down in his living room, but he hit four 3's and had 18 points in the Warriors dominating win over the Golden Falcons.

Warriors coach Chris Roberts wasn't playing Friday, but he may have been the happiest of anyone to be back in the gym.

He was tired of doing chores.

"I had a honey-do list from my wife," Roberts said. "She works at the post office so she had to be at work no matter what, so I was home by myself trying to fix the sink. Two trips later to Lowes and I finally got it fixed. But I couldn't take many more days of the honey-do list."

Roberts said players were consistently texting him asking when they could get back in the gym.

"It was great that everyone was as excited as I was," Roberts said. "It shows me they know how good they are playing right now and they're excited for what we could accomplish."

Roberts had plenty of time to think up strategies while playing the role of Mr. Fix-it, and at practice on Thursday the Warriors implemented a strategy to help them overcome any rust they might have from the time off. They put in a 2-1-2 zone that stumped the Golden Falcons for most of the first half in which they only scored 10 points.

"We trust coach Rob and I think he made a great call for us to come out in that zone," Poland said. "They didn't know how to attack it at the start."

But when Roberts designed the 2-1-2 zone defense, he expected to have his usual starting lineup.

But on Friday, he didn't have that.

Three of the Warriors usual Warriors starters were late for a team dinner. So, despite the game having a big potential impact on where the Warriors will be seeded in the playoffs, Roberts benched his three starters, and went with a next man up strategy for the game against their rival.

Ethan Molloy and Jeremiah Miller, usually role players, stepped in and provided defensive energy and rebounding. But the most impressive contribution came form a recent junior varsity call up Matt Sutton, who got his first start on the varsity team and scored eight points and grabbed five rebounds.

"It feels great to come up here and contribute to the team," Sutton said. "It was my first start so it was exciting but I just wanted to help the team win."

Molloy, Miller and Sutton proved to be effective for a Warriors team that is playing the best basketball it has played all season.

"For the past three weeks we've made our motto 'no excuses,'" Roberts said. "And I know this was a big game but the guys did something wrong so they were going to come off the bench. No excuses... The guys who came in stepped up and gave us a lot of intensity and we didn't miss a beat."

Malik Richards added 15 points for the Warriors.

The Warriors have been able to score all year.

They lead the conference in points per game. It's been the defense that has let them down when they have lost.

"We also lead the conference in points allowed per game," Roberts said.

But the defense came ready on Friday, and the Warriors were able to shut down Charles B. Aycock's Ian Best, who is the man with the ball the majority of the time for the Golden Falcons. Best was scoreless.

"We knew the player who makes them go is Ian Best," Roberts said. "We were able to stop him most of the night, and in turn that effected the rest of the team."

The Golden Falcons still managed four players in double figures as Damien Darden and Cameron Kornegay each scored 11 points, and Jarde Spruill and Keyshawn Cobb each had 10. But the other four players who saw time for CB Aycock combined for 12 points.