February 12, 2020
ST. PAULS There probably werent a lot of shouts of jubilation in the St. Pauls locker room Tuesday night. Just sighs of relief.
Nonetheless, whatever positive displays of emotion came from the Bulldogs were warranted they had defeated Whiteville 64-56 in a key Three Rivers Conference boys basketball contest.
Those sighs of relief came after the Wolfpack made a furious comeback attempt over the last quarter and a half, closing from a 20-point deficit to as close as two.
Theyre a good team and I knew they werent just going to bow down. We just had to withstand the run, St. Pauls coach Corey Thompson said. Thats kind of been our season, so I told our guys were built for it, this was not uncharted territory for us, so we just had to play through it and weather the storm.
The win moves the Bulldogs into a loss-column tie for first in the TRC with Whiteville and West Columbus. The Wolfpack and Vikings, at 12-3 in the league, are a half-game ahead of St. Pauls. If St. Pauls wins out, they would win the No. 1 seed in the league tournament by virtue of a head-to-head tiebreaker; the Bulldogs make up Fridays postponement on Wednesday at West Bladen before playing at Red Springs Friday to close the regular season.
Weve got to win out, but most importantly we play tomorrow night against West Bladen, and its kind of eerie because its a similar situation to South Columbus, where we cant just overlook those guys and think its going to be a cakewalk and look ahead to Friday night, Thompson said. But that South Columbus game humbled us and taught us a whole lot.
St. Pauls (17-5, 11-3 TRC) jumped out to a 13-6 lead after the first quarter and led 29-14 at halftime over Whiteville (13-6, 12-3 TRC), who came into the game as the solo conference leaders. Emonta Smith scored six points in the first quarter and Joshua Henderson had six in the second to lead the Bulldog charge.
The Bulldogs scored eight of the first 11 points of the second half to extend their lead to its largest point at 37-17 midway through the second quarter. Thats when Whiteville began its run, closing to a 43-31 deficit by the end of the third.
The Wolfpack continued their run into the fourth, starting the period with a 16-6 stretch over five-plus minutes to pull to their closest second-half deficit at 49-47 with 2:43 to go. Wendell Smith was key in the Whiteville run, scoring eight of his 10 points in the fourth.
Anthony Campbell hit a basket to give St. Pauls some breathing room at 51-47, starting a pattern for the duration of the game: every time Whiteville got within a possession, the Bulldogs had an answer. These included a Zarron Glover made free throw and a Jeyvian Tatum putback when Glover missed the second shot, two Emonta Smith free throws and a Tatum layup off a Whiteville turnover that gave St. Pauls a 61-56 lead with 36 seconds left. From there, two Erickson Emanuel free throws made it a three-possession lead, while Whiteville missed three field-goal attempts in the final half-minute.
We knew how many points we were up, and we knew that team wasnt going to give up, they were going to fight to the buzzer, because thats a good team, said Emonta Smith, one of six seniors honored as part of Senior Night before the game. We just kept fighting to the end, and making our free throws at the last possessions of the game.
Emonta Smith scored 14 points to lead the Bulldogs, who had a balanced offensive attack, with nine players scoring and eight scoring four or more points. Caleb Henderson scored nine points and Anthony Campbell and Emanuel each scoring eight.
Ive always talked to our guys about the depth that we have, and its hard to play a team that has multiple scorers or guys that any given night can produce, Thompson said. Thats kind of been our M.O. this year you cant pinpoint on one guy, because any given night anybody can get going. I think thats a sign of a really good team, and a deep team, and Im so glad were starting to click at the right time.
John Baldwin scored 12 points and McFadden had 11 for Whiteville.
Top dogs: St. Pauls girls clinch TRC title
The St. Pauls girls basketball team had to wait four extra days for an opportunity to clinch the TRC regular-season title after Fridays game against West Bladen was postponed.
But the clincher became that much more special Tuesday night, as the Bulldogs could celebrate a conference championship as they also celebrated Senior Night and the Bulldogs took care of business on the floor allowing them to do just that.
St. Pauls beat the Wolfpack 62-35, sealed its first regular-season conference title since 1998.
Its emotional right now, St. Pauls coach Mike Moses said. Just knowing we came from the bottom of this conference, the laughing stocks of the conference, the laughing stocks of the county, and in a two-year span, just to turn it around and win the conference is crazy.
It means a lot, Iyania Evans said. We set this goal at the beginning of the summer when we were outside running, and the fact that we accomplished it, Im very happy.
After the Bulldogs won just three games in the 2016-17 season, the team has improved in each season under Moses, building to this years titlists who are currently undefeated (21-0, 14-0 TRC).
Seniors Taniya Redmon, Mackenzie Ransom, Marckia Galbreath, Larkan Maynor and Destiny Maynor, usually reserves for the Bulldogs, started. Iyania Evans, the teams sixth senior and the only one who is normally a starter did not start; Moses said she did so voluntarily to let the other seniors start in their final regular-season home game. Evans played her first three seasons at Fayetteville Christian before coming back to her hometown school at St. Pauls for her senior year.
Its very cool; Im very happy that I came back and got to be a part of this, Evans said. I dont want to feel like how the seniors (previous years) felt, losing on their senior night, and Im happy that (the other seniors) got to win on their senior night.
The Bulldogs faced a 12-6 deficit early in the second quarter after Whiteville (13-8, 10-5 TRC) opened the period on a 6-0 run, but answered with a 20-3 run to take a 26-15 lead with 1:29 left in the half, ultimately leading 26-16 at the break.
We just had to settle down. We just had to get going, and were going to get everybodys best shot initially, Moses said. What Ive been telling the girls the last month and a half is how you counter that. Take the punches, then throw a couple jabs, then after that the adrenaline dies down.
St. Pauls continued to stretch its lead the rest of the way, using a 20-7 third-quarter advantage to take a 46-23 lead to the fourth, and led by as many as 32 in the fourth.
Jakieya Thompson led St. Pauls with 19 points and had five steals and five assists. T.J. Eichelberger and Evans both had double-doubles; Eichelberger had 13 points and 10 rebounds and Evans had 12 points with 15 rebounds.
Trinity Smith scored 10 points to lead Whiteville.
Chris Stiles | The RobesonianSt. Pauls Iyania Evans, left, looks to put up a shot as Whitevilles Mataya Carmichael, right, during Tuesdays game in St. Pauls
Chris Stiles | The RobesonianSt. Pauls girls basketball coach Mike Moses, center, celebrates with the Bulldogs team after clinching the Three Rivers Conference regular-season championship on Tuesday by beating Whiteville.
Chris Stiles | The Robesonian St. Pauls Anthony Campbell, 2, drives inside past Whievilles Ty Moss, 11, and Ervin Moore, 20, during Tuesdays game in St. Pauls.
St. Pauls tops Whiteville in key TRC duel; girls clinch title
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