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Gaston Day Drops Pair to Concord 1st Assembly

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Jun 1, 2001
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Gaston Day’s MAC winning streak ends at hand of Concord First Assembly


The Spartans had not lost a conference game since Feb. 2016.

For the past couple years, Gaston Day has been the standard by which teams in the Metrolina Athletic Conference hoped to reach.

On Tuesday, Concord First Assembly showed it was ready to take a pronounced leap toward the top of the league’s pecking order.

In a matchup between two of the conference’s last undefeated teams, it was the Eagles who were left standing after a 59-46 win on the Spartans’ home floor.

It was Gaston Day’s (11-5, 2-1 MAC) first loss in MAC play since Feb. 18, 2016 — a 65-50 setback at the hand of Northside Christian Academy in the conference tournament’s semifinal round. The team had won 27 consecutive games in league play.

By setting the tone on the defensive end, Concord First Assembly (19-4, 5-0 MAC) assured the streak would not extend past Tuesday night.

The Eagles scored the first 10 points of the contest. Meanwhile, Gaston Day stumbled out the gate with 10 turnovers in the game’s opening eight minutes.

Somehow, the Spartans only found themselves down six at the end of the first quarter, 16-10. A cold second period did the team no favors, however, being outscored by Concord First Assembly 12-2 to go into the halftime break in a 16-point hole.

“We turned the ball over entirely too many times in the first half,” said Gaston Day boys basketball coach Trent McAllister. “Against a good basketball team, you really put yourself at an extreme disadvantage when you give it to them as many times as we did. I mean, we scored 12 points in the first half and that’s pretty reflective of how we did — or did not — take care of the ball.”

While Gaston Day began to take care of the basketball in the third quarter, it encountered another problem during the stanza — Concord First Assembly’s Cheick Traore.

With the Spartans’ Demilade Adelekun doing his best to avoid further foul trouble, the Eagles’ junior center scored 12 in the frame to give his team a comfortable lead.

“He can do that, we just would like to see that from him every game,” said Concord First Assembly boys basketball coach Frank Cantadore. “We let him know that, and for him to come here and do it against another good big, I’m really proud of him.”

Despite being down by a sizable margin, Gaston Day did what it could to nibble into the lead. After falling behind by 18 points in the fourth, the Spartans went on a 9-0 run to cut the lead in half with less than five minutes to go.

But right once it seemed momentum was on their sideline, a 3-pointer by Concord First Assembly’s Eli Cupples put an end to the surge — as well as any hopes of a miraculous comeback.

Adelekun led all scorers with 22 points, with Gaston Day teammate Ja’Kai Belton joining him in double figures with 10. Traore had 18 to lead the way for Concord First Assembly, with Trae Benham adding 10.

With its streak now a thing of the past, McAllister said he’s banking on the team’s relentless effort to carry it through the end of this week — which features a pair of key contests — and beyond.

“One thing we can hang our hat on is that we didn’t quit,” he said. “Our effort was there all 32 minutes. This team has the ability to shoot the basketball. As we showed in the second half, it is a wonder how when you take care of the ball how things work better for you on the offensive end.”

Girls game

Concord First Assembly 54, Gaston Day 40: Down double digits in the third period, the Spartans went on a 10-2 run to cut the Eagles’ lead to four points.

That would be the closest they would get, however, unable to make a relentless group of Eagles crack in a key MAC girls matchup.

Concord First Assembly’s Jada McMillen led all scorers with 16 points. Zaria Clark led Gaston Day with 13 points and 11 rebounds, while Portia Shouse followed her with 11 in a losing effort.

The Spartans fall to 9-6 overall, 3-1 in MAC play.
 
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