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| East Columbus High players Jim Freeman (above, in white), and B.J. Patrick (below, No. 12) both work the ball against Ayden-Grifton’s Tanner Carnes (44) in Friday night’s boys 1A basketball sectional finals at the ECHS gym. Ayden-Grifton won 67-58. East Columbus, the Waccamaw 1A-2A Conference champion for the second straigh year, closed its season with a 23-6 record. Staff photo by Mark Gilchrist |
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By DAN BISER
Sports Editor
LAKE WACCAMAW – Generally, when East Columbus High senior basketball players Jerry Moore and B.J. Patrick each come away with a 20-point night, you can pretty much expect a Gator victory.
That, however, was not the case Friday night as the visiting Ayden-Grifton Chargers and their well-polished offense controlled the tempo for most of the final three quarters in a 67-58 victory over the host Gators.
Moore finished with 22 points and Patrick had 20 as each finished out superb high school careers, but it was the balanced scoring of the Ayden-Grifton squad that supplied the difference.
Charger center Tanner Carnes scored 18 points with a good number of those coming off offensive rebounds. Point guard Steffen McGhee collected 16 points, followed by Matt Doherty with 14 and Terrance Peterson with 11.
East Columbus held early leads of 5–0 and 7-3, but Ayden-Grifton did not trail after the midpoint mark of the first half and took the lead for good early in the second quarter.
East Columbus connected for six 3-point baskets, but Ayden-Grifton had a big night at the foul line, hitting 14-of-17 attempts.
Charger coach Bob Murphrey, now in his 41st season as a head coach and the only varsity boys coach that Ayden-Grifton has had since the school opened in 1971, said he was pleased with the way his team handled itself against a strong East Columbus squad on the Gators’ homefloor.
“We made a long bus trip here and then played in front of a big gym full of their supporters,” Murphrey said. “It was a big challenge for our kids, but they handled it well.”
East Columbus saw starting center Jermaine Waddell have to go to the bench early with foul trouble, and the 6-5 Gator senior eventually fouled out.
“We never really got settled in even though we made a nice run at them in the second half,” said Gator coach Clarence Ganus. “We cut it to two but couldn’t quite get it back over the hump after that.”
Tailing 52-41 early in the fourth quarter, the Gators went on an 11-2 run behind the play of Moore, Patrick and Jim Freeman to cut the lead to 54-52 with 4 minutes, 20 seconds left in the game.
But after a time-out, Ayden-Grifton answered with a 7-0 run as it began spreading the floor with its offense and chalking up the win.
Coach Ganus said that it was a tough way to end a season, but that his first season as Gator coach had been very satisfying.
“We’ve had a good group of seniors and we’ve accomplished a lot,” he said. “Our kids are disappointed because they wanted to take it further than our program had been before, but I still couldn’t be any prouder. It has been a special season.”
East Columbus, which won the Waccamaw 1A-2A Conference regular-season and tournament championship for the second straight year, closed with a 23-6 record.
Ayden-Grifton will take a 21-6 record to this week’s Eastern N.C. 1A regionals. The Chargers are hoping to give Murphrey, the state’s winningest active high school boys basketball coach, the fourth state championship of his career.
| Ayden-Grifton |
15
|
16
|
17
|
19
|
-
|
67
|
| E. Columbus |
11
|
13
|
15
|
29
|
-
|
58
|
AYDEN-GRIFTON (67): Carnes 18, McGhee 16, Doherty 14, Peterson 11, Gay 4, M. Atkinson 2 D. Atkinson 2.
EAST COLUMBUS (58): Moore 22, Patrick 10, Waddell 6 Ganus 5, Freeman 4, Waddell 6.