By By KEVIN TRAVIS, Sports Editor
WINTERVILLE — Washington’s final tune-up before the state playoffs was a solid one despite an 82-59 loss to South Central in Wednesday’s second round of the Coastal Conference girls basketball tournament.
After getting blown out by 40 and 33 points in the regular season, No. 4 seed Washington (13-12) put in a valiant effort against the No. 1 seed Falcons (24-0), who are ranked fourth in the latest NCPreps.com Class 3-A poll. However, South Central was able to use a big 24-8 third quarter to pull away.
Washington will tip off the N.C. High School Athletic Association state tournament Monday at West Brunswick. The game will begin at 6 p.m.
The Falcons still have plenty to play for as they’ll compete in the conference tournament championship game Friday. South Central coach Mary Bryan-Carlyle said her seniors, who are 74-7 over the last three years, are a key reason why.
Washington senior Sam Smith did everything in her power in hopes of pulling off an upset. She finished with 22 points and 22 rebounds.
Sharita Grice added 14 points for the Pack, while Hayley Stowe had 11 and Harmony Simpkins nine.
South Central’s Danielle Butts, who was carried into the locker room after becoming dizzy following a blow to the head in the second quarter, led all scorers with 23 points. Emily Perkins had a sensational all-around game with 15 points, eight assists, seven steals and six rebounds. Kelsey McCorkle chipped in 12 points and Ja’nesha Ebron had 11.
Perkins, also a standout softball player for the Falcons, said unity is the team’s key to success.
The Pack seemed to stun the Falcons early, taking a quick 3-0 lead behind a bucket by Grice and a free throw from Stowe. After South Central took the lead, Smith got inside for a layup to give Washington a 9-8 advantage.
Perkins hit a layup at the other end to give South Central a 10-9 lead with 3:11 to play in the first quarter. The Falcons wouldn’t trail again.
McCorkle hit a big 3-pointer late in the quarter to help give the Falcons a 17-12 lead.
Perkins ignited an early run in the second quarter for South Central, hitting a layup and a 3-pointer to give the Falcons a 28-16 advantage. The lead grew to as many as 17, 33-16, before Washington rallied.
Smith did the brunt of the damage, scoring 11 of her points in the quarter to help get the Pack within 41-28 at the break.
A 9-2 run to start the third, capped by a Perkins steal and layup, gave South Central a 50-30 advantage. The lead grew to 25 points, 59-34, after Perkins scored on a back-door cut.
That helped give South Central a 65-36 lead heading in the fourth.
Washington traded buckets in the final quarter with South Central.
Bryan-Carlyle said she was impressed with Washington’s effort.
Jones said her team’s effort will benefit it come playoff time.
Washington 12 16 8 23 — 59
South Central 17 24 24 17 — 82
WASHINGTON (59)
Sam Smith 22, Sharita Grice 14, Hayley Stowe 11, Simpkins 9, Palmer 2, Cox 1, Batchelor, Tackett, Rogers, Weatherington, Alligood, Litzey.
SOUTH CENTRAL (82)
Danielle Butts 23, Emily Perkins 15, Kelsey McCorkle 12, Ja’nesha Ebron 11, Glover 6, Clark 6, Bryant 5, Tyson 2, Johnson 2, Churchill, Mills.
Daniels’ 25 points not enough for Pack boys
By Aaron Carpenter, Staff Correspondent
GREENVILLE — The Washington Pam Pack men’s basketball team lost to the D.H. Conley Vikings Wednesday night 69-55 in the AAA/AAAA conference semi-final.
The first quarter began with almost three minutes of lackluster play in which both teams failed to score. Spencer had a nice drive and finished with a layup to open up the scoring for the Pam Pack.
Conley, the number one seed in the tourney, responded with short jumpers from Robbie Leavey and Jaron Lane, the latter of which added a free throw to the total. Washington, the five seed, got within one when Daquon Daniels put back his own miss in the lane to make the score 5-4, but that precipitated an 8-0 run over the next two minutes. Six of the Vikings eight came from Chad Anderson sinking a couple of 3-pointers.
The Pack fought back and Jarees Griffin drained a three with two seconds left to end the first with Conley leading 15-9. During the opening minutes of the second quarter, the Vikings extended their lead by causing turnovers and using their height to their advantage.
Just three minutes in, Conley had widened the lead to 23-12.
The two squads played each other pretty evenly over the remainder of the half, with Conley’s points coming primarily from the charity strip and Washington’s coming mostly from put-backs. A layup from Daniels with 20 seconds left ended the scoring in the first half with the Vikings leading 31-22.
After coming out of the locker room, it didn’t look like things were going to change much for Washington as Conley came out on a 9-2 run to take a 16 point lead. It was then that the Pack turned up the heat on defense, forcing turnovers and getting easy baskets to bring Washington within three points, 41-38. Daniels scored 10 of his team-leading 25 during that two minute stretch. But the Pack’s shooting went cold again and Conley got three straight layups to get the lead back to nine before Daniels sank a layup of his own with 18 seconds left in the third. That made for a seven point deficit for Washington going into the final period, 47-40. With the Pack seeming to force shots at times, and with the Vikings having trouble missing from wherever they shot the ball, the lead grew
to 14 in the first two minutes of the fourth.
For much of the game, Washington looked like their scoring was predominately limited to fast-break points, and that held true for much of the last quarter as well. It just wasn’t enough to prevail over Conley’s lead and generally superior athleticism. Washington was able to get within 10 a couple of times in the fourth quarter, but never got closer than that and the game wasn’t really ever in doubt from the time Conley took its 14 point lead.
In the last minute, the Vikings added five points from the line before Daniels drilled a meaningless 3-pointer with 20 seconds left on the clock to close out the scoring. The Vikings play in the conference championship Friday. The Pam Pack travel to play Jacksonville-White Oak on Tuesday.
Washington 9 13 18 15 – 55
D.H. Conley 15 16 16 22 – 69
WASHINGTON (55)
Daquon Daniels 25, Griffin 8, Spencer 6, Cox 6, Cogdell 4, Modlin 3,
Godley 2, Moore 1
D.H. CONLEY (69)
Akeem Daniels 14, Jaron Lane 14, Chad Anderson 12, Robbie Leavey 10,
Setters 6, Abdullah 6, Quinn 2, Lewis 2, Evans 2, Moore 1