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| East Columbus High School boys basketball coach Clarence Ganus gives defensive signals following a Gator basket. ECHS defeated Trask 90-76 Friday night for its second straight conference championship. |
wrap up
2nd straight
league title
ROCKY POINT – The East Columbus Gators bounced back from a two-game losing slump Friday night to still claim outright possession of their second straight Waccamaw 1A-2A Conference boy basketball championship.
Behind a 60-point second-half output, the Gators ran to a 96-70 victory over the host Heide Trask Titans.
Jerry Moore scored 29 points, B.J. Patrick had 28 and Jermaine Waddell had 20 for Coach Clarence Ganus’ Gators, who were coming off back-to-back conference losses to Pender and South Brunswick.
East Columbus took the conference crown with a 10-2 record and closed its regular-season schedule with an 18-5 overall record.
“We didn’t play well in our last two games and that got us beat,” Ganus said. “We knew we would have to regain our focus and come back with a good effort tonight. Our kids did a good job tonight, especially in the second half.
East Columbus led 36-29 at the half but put the contest well out of reach with 34 points in the third quarter.
Trask closed conference play with a 3-9 mark.
East Columbus won the girls game 51-22 with sophomore T.T. Bennett scoring 19 points and Jasmine Young adding nine to break a two-game losing streak.
East Columbus was playing without guard Taquanna Bress, who suffered a season-ending ACL injury in last Tuesday’s overtime loss to South Brunswick.
Coach Karlyn Stephens’ Lady Gators closed conference play with an 8-4 third-place record. They are the only team to take a conference win over champion Whiteville.
The Trask girls finished 0-12 in the conference.
The East Columbus girls will play host to North Brunswick tonight at 6:30 in the opening round of the Waccamaw Conference Tournament. The ECHS boys have received an opening-round by in the conference tournament and will take on the winner of Tuesday night’s Whiteville-Pender game on Wednesday night at 7:30.
GIRLS GAME
| E. Columbus |
11
|
12
|
13
|
15
|
-
|
51
|
| Trask |
2
|
6
|
8
|
6
|
-
|
22
|
EAST COLUMBUS (51): Bennett 19, Young 9, Moore 2, Bracey 7, Jacobs 7, Ellis 3, Lennon 4.
TRASK (22): Shiver 2, Brown 2, Chappell 7, King 2, Lewis 1, Smith 8.
BOYS GAME
| E. Columbus |
13
|
23
|
34
|
26
|
-
|
96
|
| Trask |
12
|
17
|
19
|
22
|
-
|
70
|
EAST COLUMBUS (96): Clark 3, Freeman 7, Waddell 20, Patrick 28, Moore 29, Davis 6, Brooks 3.
TRASK (70): Hill 15, Johnson 12, Sykes 13, Lewis 7, London 5, Bailey 4, Lee 9, Farrior 3, Wiggins 2.