Sunday, Feb. 05, 2012

Trojans take another step

Garner cruises past West Johnston

The Garner boys basketball team has another Greater Neuse River 4A Conference title in its sights and, after a convincing 69-33 victory at West Johnston on Tuesday night, the defending champions took one step closer to defending their title.

West Johnston hung tough for the game's first 10 minutes before the Trojans went on one of their familiar runs to put the game out of reach.

After the Wildcats' Darius Williams connected from long range to cut the Trojans' lead to 16-11 early in the second quarter, Garner outscored its hosts 18-4 over the final five-and-a-half minutes of the quarter to build a 21-point halftime advantage.

"I thought we played really well in the first quarter," said West Johnston coach Kris Bennett. "We slowed it down, we made some buckets and we got some energy plays.

"Once they got rolling in the second quarter, we really couldn't come back from that. We just can't score that quickly."

Helping the Trojans score quickly was a stifling full-court press that helped force 26 Wildcat turnovers in the pivotal second and third quarters that saw the Trojans outscore the Wildcats 45-15.

Those turnovers were converted into points as Julius Barnes, Josh McClain and Demarcus Sanford were the main culprits in the thievery department.

"We had a real sluggish first half ... and then I was real pleased with the way we came out and played better defense at the end of the second quarter," Garner coach Eddie Gray said. "We turned up the intensity a little bit and got some easy buckets off our defense and it continued into the third quarter."

Dominique Reed led the Trojans with 19 points, doing much of his damage on the foul line. McClain finished with 15 points.

Williams led the Wildcats with 15 points while Montrell Brooks appeared next in the scoring column with six points.

For Bennett and the Wildcats (3-15 overall, 2-9 conference), the focus for the final three games of the regular season are all about finishing on a positive note.

"We've just got to refocus and just play a little mini three-game season and come out on the positive end of it," Bennett said.

As for the league-leading Trojans (17-2, 10-1), a pair of crucial matchups will determine whether the Trojans can claim the regular season title outright.

"We've got two big games at home against Knightdale and Southeast Raleigh and that's always an intense rivalry any time we play those two teams," said Gray, whose squad survived Knightdale with a four-point win earlier in the season and suffered its only conference loss at Southeast Raleigh.

"We want to play with a lot of passion; a lot of heart. We've got to play hard every ball game. If we do what we're supposed to do, we can win another championship."