Bengals top Trojans for title, 67-53
LEWISVILLE — Wesleyan Christian didn’t play its best, and Greensboro Day capitalized on the biggest stage of the season.The second-seeded Bengals jumped ahead early, held one of Wesleyan’s top scorers scoreless throughout, and hung on to hand the top-seeded Trojans a 67-53 loss in the NCISAA 3A boys basketball state championship Saturday at Forsyth Countr y Day.
“We didn’t play well,” Wesleyan coach Keith Gatlin said. “The silver lining is that we had no points from Jaylen Hoard and fought to the end – you’ve got to take it. It was a tough night – I feel sorry for him. But if you don’t score a bucket at this magnitude where we’ve been counting on you all year, it’s tough.
“They shot the ball well. Give them credit — they shot the ball extremely well. And their support guys hurt us. The first two times their support guys didn’t show up — McCorkle, Greene and their big guy, Mike (Fowler). They didn’t score the first two games, and halftime they had nine, 11 and eight. That hurt us a lot.”
Aaron Wiggins scored 18 points to lead the Trojans (27-6), who swept Greensboro Day during the regular season en route to the PACIS title. Shawn Walker Jr. added 17 points, followed by Keyshaun langley with 12 points.But Wesleyan quickly fell behind, trailing 19-11 after one quarter as the Bengals’ Tripp Greene sank an off-balance 3-pointer at the buzzer. It got behind 13 at halftime, 33-20, and never recovered.
Greensboro Day, which scored well from outside as well as going to the basket, got its lead to 18 with 6:25 left in the third. The Trojans cut it to nine with 4:38 left in the quarter but trailed 49-35 heading to the fourth.
In the fourth, Wesleyan, amping up the pressure defense as its defi cit reached 18 again, got as close as seven twice in the final 3 1-2 minutes — once with 3:25 left and again with 1:38 left.
But, each time after getting a stop and having an opportunity to pull closer, the Trojans came up empty and the Bengals, who remained without standout Will Dillard, went the other way and scored.
“We had to scratch and claw the whole game, so we never got a rhythm,” Gatlin said. “And when you’ve got to fight like that just to get back in the game, it’s hit or miss. You want them to make some mistakes — and they did, but we just didn’t have enough tonight.”
John Newman scored 24 points to lead GreensboroDay (27-7), which captured the program’s 10th state championship. Carson McCorkle added 15 points, while Tripp Greene had 10 points.
Three seniors graduatefor Wesleyan: Hoard, Wiggins and Khyrie Thompson.
“It was a great season,”Gatlin said. “It’s disappointing, because we didn’t seal the deal. It’s a tough ending for our seniors. … We know what to do (next year). We’ve been down this road before. We’ve just got to get better.”
LEWISVILLE — Wesleyan Christian didn’t play its best, and Greensboro Day capitalized on the biggest stage of the season.The second-seeded Bengals jumped ahead early, held one of Wesleyan’s top scorers scoreless throughout, and hung on to hand the top-seeded Trojans a 67-53 loss in the NCISAA 3A boys basketball state championship Saturday at Forsyth Countr y Day.
“We didn’t play well,” Wesleyan coach Keith Gatlin said. “The silver lining is that we had no points from Jaylen Hoard and fought to the end – you’ve got to take it. It was a tough night – I feel sorry for him. But if you don’t score a bucket at this magnitude where we’ve been counting on you all year, it’s tough.
“They shot the ball well. Give them credit — they shot the ball extremely well. And their support guys hurt us. The first two times their support guys didn’t show up — McCorkle, Greene and their big guy, Mike (Fowler). They didn’t score the first two games, and halftime they had nine, 11 and eight. That hurt us a lot.”
Aaron Wiggins scored 18 points to lead the Trojans (27-6), who swept Greensboro Day during the regular season en route to the PACIS title. Shawn Walker Jr. added 17 points, followed by Keyshaun langley with 12 points.But Wesleyan quickly fell behind, trailing 19-11 after one quarter as the Bengals’ Tripp Greene sank an off-balance 3-pointer at the buzzer. It got behind 13 at halftime, 33-20, and never recovered.
Greensboro Day, which scored well from outside as well as going to the basket, got its lead to 18 with 6:25 left in the third. The Trojans cut it to nine with 4:38 left in the quarter but trailed 49-35 heading to the fourth.
In the fourth, Wesleyan, amping up the pressure defense as its defi cit reached 18 again, got as close as seven twice in the final 3 1-2 minutes — once with 3:25 left and again with 1:38 left.
But, each time after getting a stop and having an opportunity to pull closer, the Trojans came up empty and the Bengals, who remained without standout Will Dillard, went the other way and scored.
“We had to scratch and claw the whole game, so we never got a rhythm,” Gatlin said. “And when you’ve got to fight like that just to get back in the game, it’s hit or miss. You want them to make some mistakes — and they did, but we just didn’t have enough tonight.”
John Newman scored 24 points to lead GreensboroDay (27-7), which captured the program’s 10th state championship. Carson McCorkle added 15 points, while Tripp Greene had 10 points.
Three seniors graduatefor Wesleyan: Hoard, Wiggins and Khyrie Thompson.
“It was a great season,”Gatlin said. “It’s disappointing, because we didn’t seal the deal. It’s a tough ending for our seniors. … We know what to do (next year). We’ve been down this road before. We’ve just got to get better.”
