tourney opener;
Trask nips SCHS
LAKE WACCAMAW – The Whiteville Wolfpack opened defense of its Waccamaw Conference boys basketball tournament championship Tuesday by defeating the North Brunswick Scorpions 64-56 behind Marcel Williams’ 29 points at the East Columbus High gym.
In Tuesday’s other opening-round action, the Trask Titans held on for a 63-59 win over South Columbus despite a 25-point effort by SC’s Derrick Clay. Also, Pender defeated South Brunswick 55-47.
Trask went against regular-season champion East Columbus in Wednesday’s semi-final play (see result in A-section). Whiteville will square off with Pender tonight at 7:30 in the other semi-final. The boys championship game is set for Friday night at 8 p.m. All tournament games are being played at East Columbus
Trask 63
S. Columbus 59
No. 5-seeded South Columbus jumped to a 19-10 first quarter lead before No. 4 Trask battled back to tie the score at 32-all at the half.
Demetrious Simpson scored 21 points for the Titans, followed by Jamel Hicks with 15 and Eddie Boney with 11. It was Trask’s third win in as many games with the Stallions this season.
Clay had one of his most productive scoring nights of the season for South Columbus, which closed its season with a 7-15 record. Brandon Keel and Sam Fipps each scored nine points for Coach Nathan Faulk’s Stallions, who showed significant improvement this season after going 1-21 a year ago.
| S. Columbus | 19 | 13 | 10 | 17 | - | 59 | |
| Trask | 10 | 22 | 17 | 14 | - | 63 |
SOUTH COLUMBUS (59): Batton 6, Edwards 8, J. Vereen 2, Clay 25, Elleby 4, Keel 9, Fipps 5, Bryant 4.
TRASK (63): Myles 4, Nixon 8, Boney 11, Hicks 15, Sykes 2, Farrior 2, Simpson 21.
Whiteville 64
N. Brunswick 56
Williams had his second straight 29-point game as he hit six 3-point shots for the second-seeded Wolfpack. Freshman Sprandon Mahoney contributed 15 points and senior center D.J. Anders had seven points and 10 rebounds as Whiteville won its fifth straight game to improve to 13-8.
The Wolfpack led 39-27 at the half as it took its third win in as many games over the North Brunswick team this season.
Tyrone Robbins had 19 point while Brandon Savoca and Josh Balloon each had 13 for No. 7 North Brunswick, which wrapped up its season with a 7-15 record.
| N. Brunswick | 12 | 15 | 17 | 12 | - | 56 | |
| Whiteville | 18 | 21 | 17 | 8 | - | 64 |
NORTH BRUNSWICK (56): Robbins 19, Savoca 13, Balloon 13, Wright 4, Cobb 3, Riley 2, Alderman 2.
WHITEVILLE (64): Williams 29, Mahoney 15, Anders 7, Clark 4, Grant 3, Royal 2.
