Eastern Wayne weathered a late storm and defeated C.B. Aycock 56-48 in the final game of the season for both squads on Friday evening.
The Warriors started fast and held a 23-11 lead early in the second quarter.
But the Warriors started to slow down, which allowed the Golden Falcons to erase the deficit.
Jaidyne Dunn’s three-pointer cut the Warriors’ lead down to 25-21, but the Warriors closed out the second quarter on a 7-2 run, and Eastern Wayne led 32-23 at halftime.
“I’m just really proud,” Eastern Wayne head coach Bill Manning said. “Give credit to C.B. Aycock because we knew they were going to come back, and they knocked down some big shots.
“I’m so proud of our team because we kept it together.”
Eastern Wayne opened the second half with renewed vigor and outscored the Golden Falcons 8-2 to open the third quarter.
Back-to-back three-pointers from Zavion Hardy and Alijah Brown pushed Eastern Wayne ahead 40-25.
A three-pointer from Connor Batts with three minutes remaining cut the Warriors’ lead down to 48-46, but that was as close as the Golden Falcons got to completing the comeback as Eastern Wayne’s Albert Brown converted some free throws to seal the win for the Warriors.
“It might go unnoticed, but toward the end of the game, we got some big stops defensively,” Manning said.
Brown paced the Warriors with 28 points. Hardy added 13 points, while J.J. Murray scored four points.
Dunn and Trever Reid each scored 12 points to lead C.B. Aycock. Batts finished with eight points.
Eastern Wayne ends the season with a 4-8 overall record, while C.B. Aycock finishes with a 4-9 record. Manning said he hopes the season-ending win will act as a springboard into next season.
“We had three sophomores that in other years would’ve been starters in the JV team,” Manning said. “So, with Albert, that’s a really good nucleus.”
