BOYS' BASKETBALL: Kinston dominates Goldsboro

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on February 18, 2017 11:06 PM

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rcoggins@newsargus.com

KINSTON -- Goldsboro's semifinal-round upset of then-unbeaten Greene Central turned some heads among its Eastern Carolina 2-A Conference basketball brethren Wednesday evening.

And opened the eyes -- wide -- of head Kinston coach Perry Tyndall.

"Number one, I said it's a very confident team," Tyndall said of the Cougars. "They're going to come back confident and they just knocked off the number one team that could be the number one (2A east) seed in the playoffs.

"We're going to have to stick with our gameplan, come out and play hard, play smart."

The Cougars dictated the tempo early.

They ran their offense with precision -- crisp passes around the perimeter and waited to find the open lane to the basket. The designed plan translated to a 23-19 lead after one period.

Perry challenged his team in the huddle.

Kinston (18-7 overall) answered his challenge, turned up the defensive pressure and rolled to an 80-53 victory in the Eastern Carolina 2-A Conference tournament final Friday evening. The second-seeded Vikings claimed their 11th -- yes 11th -- consecutive tournament championship.

"We just got caught up in the moment and I didn't think we were as good as we could be defensively. I thought we just continued to attack and we shared the rock."

Keyshon Smith's 3-pointer gave Goldsboro (12-12) its biggest lead, 26-19, just seconds into the second period. The Vikings answered with Damian Dunn's 3-pointer and Tracy Whitfield's bucket knotted the game at 26-26.

Jaryan Hargis buried a 3 for GHS.

Gage Pearsall and Chris Cratch combined for nine points during an 11-2 run that all but broke the Cougars' aspirations of pulling off their second upset in a three-day period.

Kinston led 43-33 at intermission.

"We did not do a good job executing on offense," Stephens said. "Defensively, they were playing Kinston basketball and we couldn't stop them from scoring. They got the ball in the middle of the court and we knew that's where they wanted to get the ball.

"Dunn was outstanding for them tonight. He made plays all over the court, even though he was in a little bit of foul trouble, I think he was the difference in the game."

Dunn delivered clutch baskets and led all scorers with 18 points.

Kinston limited the Cougars to 10 points in each of the final three quarters, and dominated the glass 42-26. Pearsall and Reginald Clark combined for 12 caroms.

The Vikings had 16 team assists on 32 made field goals.

"The game of basketball for kids who are 15 to 18 (years old) can be fool's gold sometimes," Stephens said. "Wednesday night, the second half, we couldn't miss here. The second quarter on (tonight), we couldn't score a basket.

"They took us out of what we wanted to do, plus they were able to get easy baskets."

Hargis emerged as the Cougars' top scorer with 15 points. Smith contributed eight points off the bench. Isaiah Cogdell and Jarrod Scott, who encountered foul trouble, finished with seven points apiece.