‘Getting better’: Terra Ceia boys, girls making improvements despite split vs. Northeast

Published 1:05 am Saturday, November 23, 2024

By Jason O. Boyd

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TERRA CEIA, N.C. — Points were not hard to come by when Terra Ceia and Northeast Academy squared off in a non-conference basketball set last week.

In the case of the boys’ team, all those points led to an easy win. The Knights were not as fortunate on the girls’ side. Terra Ceia’s boys raced to a 68-17 win while the girls lost in overtime, 76-68.

There was one bright spot for the Terra Ceia girls as its lone senior, Lakin VanEssendelft, reached 1,000 career points scored in the first half. (More on this in the Nov. 30 edition of The Washington Daily News and on our website).

The boys go into the Thanksgiving break with a 3-2 record, picking up easy wins over Jacksonville Christian Academy and Bethel Assembly Christian Academy between losses to New Bern Charter Academy and Pamlico Christian Academy. Third-year head coach Mark Cagle believes the Knights are making strides.

“I was really encouraged by our play and how much the guys have grown through practice,” Cagle said. “Our next game we won against Bethel Assembly by 30. And so I kind of knew a little bit about these guys because they lost to Bethel by like eight, I think.”

Terra Ceia (3-2) built a double-digit lead quickly in the first quarter and never looked back. The team’s starters, Austin Harrison, Seth Meijer (17 points), Aidan Persons, Cameron Roscoe and Ange turned up the heat with a quick-style offense that produced lots of points. Ange hit three 3-pointers and had 11 points on his way to a career-high 37 points.

In the last two minutes, the Knights used a 10-0 run to push the lead to 38-7. Northeast scored a bucket with two seconds left before the half.

“He (Ange) is very passionate about the game,” Cagle said. “And he really got in and got people off their feet, went up and got a lot of three-pointer opportunities and also hit a lot of threes from outside.”

There was a running clock midway through the third quarter with Terra Ceia leading 55-14. It was a much better showing after committing 29 turnovers in the loss to Pamlico Christian Academy.

“So that’s what we went into tonight was really trying to work hard on taking care of the ball a little bit better,” Cagle said. “And they did that. They responded well to that.”

The girls’ contest produced some good moments when VanEssendelft scored her 1,000th point. The Knights built a 36-33 halftime lead and extended that margin to 54-44 after three quarters as VanEssendelft scored 11 points, connecting on a 3-point basket.

The tide turned in the fourth quarter as the Eagles 10-0 run to tie the game at 54-54 with 3:41 left.

Northeast missed multiple baskets and free throws to keep the Knights in it. Terra Ceia led by three when Hayes Hatcher hit a 3-pointer with three seconds left to force overtime.

Terra Ceia head coach Jen Grace DeHoog said turnovers and some inconsistency have been issues they’ve been working on early in the season. With seven players on the team, there isn’t room for error.

The loss put the Knights at 2-3 on the season and ended a two-game win streak.

“We’ve really tried to work on passing and communication within the team to avoid turnovers, which is probably our biggest battle is the turnovers and the fouls, as this game shows,” DeHoog said. “So they’ve improved a lot on turnovers.

“Just working on passing and getting all the players taking shots and not trying to rely on one single person.”

Northeast scored six points in the first two minutes and never looked back. In the process, Leah Harrison and VanEssendelft fouled out as the Eagles ran a keepaway offense that forced the Knights to foul.

VanEssendelft finished with 29 points to lead all scorers. Harrison added 22 points.

“We have one senior and then we have an eighth grader on the team,” DeHoog said. “It’s a very young team, so it’s been a lot of getting them functioning together and keeping the fouls down.”

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