BOYS' BASKETBALL: North Duplin at Spring Creek

By Ben Coley
Published in Sports on February 15, 2017 9:59 AM

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SEVEN SPRINGS -- Spring Creek didn't act very Gator-like against North Duplin Tuesday night.

They were more like gnats buzzing around each Rebel ball-handler. Dribbling away didn't help either. It only seemed to make the nagging worse.

Spring Creek tormented North Duplin with constant pressure en route to a dominant 70-48 victory in the opening round of the Carolina 1-A Conference tournament.

On Thursday, the Gators will travel to North Duplin to play Princeton in the semifinals.

"Our defense was great," said Gators' head coach Taylor Jones. "The last two times we've played them, our defense has been spectacular. We tried to force the tempo and force their guys to have to handle the ball against the pressure."

The Rebels actually jumped to a 12-8 lead in the first quarter. However, Spring Creek's depth -- which is legitimately 10-deep -- began to wear on North Duplin.

The Gators forced 14 turnovers in the first half. The Rebels' four-point lead quickly turned into a 33-16 advantage for Spring Creek midway through the second quarter.

North Duplin fought back and cut the deficit to 41-31 in the third quarter. However, consecutive 3-pointers by Dominique Morse and Najee Young pushed the lead to 16 points.

"Early on, I thought things went really well," said Rebels' head coach Ricky Edwards, in regard to handling the pressure. "I still felt like in the third quarter we were in the game and they hit two 3s back-to-back...It didn't seem like we recovered after that."

The Rebels committed 12 more turnovers in the second half, bringing their total to 26. Young paced the Gators 22 points while Morse added 20. Shmid Romeus recorded 21 points and six rebounds for North Duplin.

Jones said he liked that his team never showed complacency, something he hopes will continue against Princeton on Thursday night.

"I was proud of them because we got up, and we never went through the motions," Jones said. "We continued to move the ball...Once we hit a few shots, it was good."