Smith, Beamon lead Cyclones in rout of Eagles
Posted on January 12, 2022
By Andrew Schnittker
aschnittker@wilsontimes.com | 252-265-7807 | Twitter: @aschnitt53
The Community Christian School boys basketball team played without two of its top players against Cresset Christian at Sallie B. Howard school Tuesday night, but you wouldn’t have known that watching the game. The Cyclones dominated from start to finish in a 69-43 win over the Eagles.
The Cyclones (6-4) used a dominant second quarter to take command and never gave the Eagles (3-6) any hope of a comeback, as the team’s transition game, rebounding and 3-point shooting proved to be too much for its opponent to handle. The Cyclones played without Seth Huston and Rylan Gray.
“We worked on (our transition game) a lot,” said Community Christian head coach Kenneth Atkinson. “We’re trying to get a little bit better with our defense. Our defense is still a little bit slow covering the middle as we should. But we’re getting a lot better at running the ball. We practice that quite a bit.”
Ayden Smith led the Cyclones with 25 points, and also added four assists, three rebounds and three steals. Landon Beamon notched a double-double with 16 points and a whopping 19 rebounds, as did Bryce Pittman with 12 and 11. Steve Lu led the Eagles with 21 points, followed by Branson Green with 12.
“Ayden did a great job both offensive and defensive wise,” Atkinson said. “And he’s getting a lot better as he goes. Over the holidays, we had problems with the COVID issues, so we didn’t get a lot of practice in. So this helped us out a lot as far as helping us work on some things that we’re supposed to work on. … It was a good performance, especially by the first five.”
After taking a narrow 13-11 lead through the first quarter, the Cyclones dominated the second, outscoring Cresset 24-10 to take a 16-point lead into halftime.
Community Christian got stops on defense, grabbed rebounds on both ends of the floor, forced turnovers and got going in transition to build its lead. In the half court, the team was able to score all over, working the ball into the paint and also kicking it out for open 3s.
The Cyclones finished the half with an 18-6 run, and at one point scored 13 straight points.
“We started out a little slow,” Atkinson said. “We haven’t had that much practice because of the different issues that we had. They were a little tight and slow at first. I told them, I said, ‘Hey, guys, I know we haven’t practiced that much, but I said just go out and play hard. Play what we already know and play hard at it.’ We did pretty good at it.”
CCS continued to wear down the Eagles, who played with just five players, with its transition game in the third quarter, extending its lead to 55-30 entering the final frame.
“It’s pretty hard to play with five players,” Smith said. “We ran the ball against them because we knew they were down. Us running the ball definitely wore them down.”
The large fourth-quarter lead allowed Atkinson to rotate his bench into the game and get everyone some playing time, and the Cyclones cruised to their sixth win of the season.
“That was wonderful,” Atkinson said. “I really loved that, because the guys I have on the team are good, even though some of them are really young. They’re really good ball players. It made me feel really good for them to get the experience.”
The Cyclones will be back in action against Bethel Christian in Kinston on Thursday.
CRESSET CHRISTIAN (43)--Lu 21, Green 13, Tofade 7, Smith 2.
COMMUNITY CHRISTIAN (69)--Smith 25, Beamon 16, Pittman 12, Williams 4, Loftin 3, Kovach 3, Pierce 2.
CRE 11 10 9 13 — 43
CCS 13 24 18 14 — 69
Posted on January 12, 2022
By Andrew Schnittker
aschnittker@wilsontimes.com | 252-265-7807 | Twitter: @aschnitt53
The Community Christian School boys basketball team played without two of its top players against Cresset Christian at Sallie B. Howard school Tuesday night, but you wouldn’t have known that watching the game. The Cyclones dominated from start to finish in a 69-43 win over the Eagles.
The Cyclones (6-4) used a dominant second quarter to take command and never gave the Eagles (3-6) any hope of a comeback, as the team’s transition game, rebounding and 3-point shooting proved to be too much for its opponent to handle. The Cyclones played without Seth Huston and Rylan Gray.
“We worked on (our transition game) a lot,” said Community Christian head coach Kenneth Atkinson. “We’re trying to get a little bit better with our defense. Our defense is still a little bit slow covering the middle as we should. But we’re getting a lot better at running the ball. We practice that quite a bit.”
Ayden Smith led the Cyclones with 25 points, and also added four assists, three rebounds and three steals. Landon Beamon notched a double-double with 16 points and a whopping 19 rebounds, as did Bryce Pittman with 12 and 11. Steve Lu led the Eagles with 21 points, followed by Branson Green with 12.
“Ayden did a great job both offensive and defensive wise,” Atkinson said. “And he’s getting a lot better as he goes. Over the holidays, we had problems with the COVID issues, so we didn’t get a lot of practice in. So this helped us out a lot as far as helping us work on some things that we’re supposed to work on. … It was a good performance, especially by the first five.”
After taking a narrow 13-11 lead through the first quarter, the Cyclones dominated the second, outscoring Cresset 24-10 to take a 16-point lead into halftime.
Community Christian got stops on defense, grabbed rebounds on both ends of the floor, forced turnovers and got going in transition to build its lead. In the half court, the team was able to score all over, working the ball into the paint and also kicking it out for open 3s.
The Cyclones finished the half with an 18-6 run, and at one point scored 13 straight points.
“We started out a little slow,” Atkinson said. “We haven’t had that much practice because of the different issues that we had. They were a little tight and slow at first. I told them, I said, ‘Hey, guys, I know we haven’t practiced that much, but I said just go out and play hard. Play what we already know and play hard at it.’ We did pretty good at it.”
CCS continued to wear down the Eagles, who played with just five players, with its transition game in the third quarter, extending its lead to 55-30 entering the final frame.
“It’s pretty hard to play with five players,” Smith said. “We ran the ball against them because we knew they were down. Us running the ball definitely wore them down.”
The large fourth-quarter lead allowed Atkinson to rotate his bench into the game and get everyone some playing time, and the Cyclones cruised to their sixth win of the season.
“That was wonderful,” Atkinson said. “I really loved that, because the guys I have on the team are good, even though some of them are really young. They’re really good ball players. It made me feel really good for them to get the experience.”
The Cyclones will be back in action against Bethel Christian in Kinston on Thursday.
CRESSET CHRISTIAN (43)--Lu 21, Green 13, Tofade 7, Smith 2.
COMMUNITY CHRISTIAN (69)--Smith 25, Beamon 16, Pittman 12, Williams 4, Loftin 3, Kovach 3, Pierce 2.
CRE 11 10 9 13 — 43
CCS 13 24 18 14 — 69
