Revenge of the Knights: Evans, Murphy spark second-half comeback against WCD
By Andrew Schnittker
aschnittker@wilsontimes.com | 252-265-7807 | Twitter: @aschnitt53
The Greenfield School varsity boys basketball team used a red-hot second half and a combined 56 points from Hampton Evans and Aaron Murphy to come away with a 81-73 win over NCISAA 1-A/2-A Coastal Plain Independents Conference foe Wayne Country Day on Thursday.
The 1-A Knights (17-5, 2-0 CPIC), who avenged a loss to the 2-A Chargers (18-5, 2-1 CPIC) in the championship game of the Greenfield Christmas Tournament last month, trailed by 10 at halftime as it struggled offensively in the first half, but, in the second, locked down the Chargers on defense and attacked inside out on offense as they outscored their opponent 49-31 in the second half.
“I’m just so proud of our guys,” said Greenfield head coach Rob Salter. “I thought our weak-side defense kept us in the first half. We weren’t very good offensively in the first half, but we took charges, we got them in foul trouble in the first half, which came back to bite them in the second half.”
Hampton Evans led the Knights with 29 points, followed by Aaron Murphy with 27 and Matt Kirby with 17. Evans and Murphy combined for 42 points in the second half.
“It feels good,” Evans said. “That’s our rival school and everybody comes out to that game, so it feels good to beat them. And we lost to them last time, so we wanted a little revenge.”
Jordan Cooper led the Chargers with 17 points, followed by Collin Tanner and Carlos Vazquez with 16 apiece and Nayshin Waller with 12.
The third quarter belonged to Greenfield, as the Knights, top-ranked among NCISAA 1-A teams by MaxPreps.com, made the necessary defensive adjustments to shut down Wayne Country Day, outscoring their opponent 22-7 and only allowing three field goals in a third frame they entered trailing by 10.
“I thought we were tougher,” Salter said. “I thought we wanted it more. I thought we really played together. We won a lot of the 50-50 balls. It’s the first time I saw us, inside, when we’d miss a shot, we didn’t complain, we didn’t say we got fouled, we just played tough. I thought our spacing was good. I just thought we played good basketball, I really do. And in games like that, because Wayne Country Day is so good, your stars have to step up. And I thought Hampton and Aaron did that tonight. And Matt Kirby, all three guys were fantastic tonight.”
Greenfield came out firing in the third, finally getting some stops on the defensive end and cashing in on offense. After the Chargers, who No. 4 in the NCISAA 2-A rankings, extended their lead to 12, the Knights ripped off an 11-0 run to strike to within one, largely thanks to the efforts of Evans, who knocked down a pair of 3-pointers and made it a 44-43 game with a three-point play.
“The first half, I was struggling with shooting the ball and pretty much everything,” Evans said. “I really wasn’t having a good offensive half, and then when halftime came, I was locked in. I said I was going to play better this half, kept my head up and didn’t get down on myself.”
Shortly after, Murphy gave the Knights their first lead of the game at 47-46 with a pair of free throws with four minutes and change left in the third frame.
Greenfield continued to take control as the quarter went along, and took a 54-49 edge into the fourth with Murphy, Evans and Kirby making big play after big play.
“I challenged him,” Salter said. “Hampton’s been playing so well in practice and the games. And he believed in himself. The second half, my three stars, Matt Kirby was great, they absolutely carried us. I’m proud of them. And Aaron Murphy refused to lose tonight. But I challenged him and Hampton, because I thought they were good defensively in the first half, but I didn’t think they were very good offensively in the first half. In the second half, they were great on both ends.”
After the teams went back and forth to start the final frame, a three-point play by Murphy and corner 3 from Evans put the Knights up 10 with a little over five minutes left to play.
The Chargers weren’t done yet, however, as Wayne Country day promptly rattled off a 7-0 run to cut Greenfield’s lead to three. That was as close as it got, however, as unlike in its home loss to Wayne Country Day in the Christmas Tournament, Greenfield made the plays to close out the game, and pushed its lead back to nine with 1:30 left to play.
“We challenged that,” Salter said. “We had to have maturity, we had to want it more. I thought Wayne wanted it more (in the Christmas tournament) at the end, and we made some bonehead mistakes. I thought tonight, at the end of the game, we made our free throws, and then I thought we made some really good decisions. We got the ball in, we got a couple layups off their press, so I thought we did a lot better job of being confident and finishing the game.”
Murphy put the exclamation point on the win with a one-handed dunk that ignited the crowd with under a minute left to play.
Greenfield will host Mount Zion Christian Academy next Thursday, Jan. 27.
WAYNE COUNTRY DAY (73)--Cooper 17, Tanner 16, Vazquez 16, Waller 12, Coles 9, Williams 2, Jones 1.
GREENFIELD (81)--Evans 29, Murphy 27, Kriby 17, Atkinson 5, Sherrod 3.
WCD 23 19 7 24 — 73
GFS 15 17 22 27 — 81
WAYNE COUNTRY DAY (73)--Cooper 17, Tanner 16, Vazquez 16, Waller 12, Coles 9, Williams 2, Jones 1.
GREENFIELD (81)--Evans 29, Murphy 27, Kirby 17, Atkinson 5, Sherrod 3
By Andrew Schnittker
aschnittker@wilsontimes.com | 252-265-7807 | Twitter: @aschnitt53
The Greenfield School varsity boys basketball team used a red-hot second half and a combined 56 points from Hampton Evans and Aaron Murphy to come away with a 81-73 win over NCISAA 1-A/2-A Coastal Plain Independents Conference foe Wayne Country Day on Thursday.
The 1-A Knights (17-5, 2-0 CPIC), who avenged a loss to the 2-A Chargers (18-5, 2-1 CPIC) in the championship game of the Greenfield Christmas Tournament last month, trailed by 10 at halftime as it struggled offensively in the first half, but, in the second, locked down the Chargers on defense and attacked inside out on offense as they outscored their opponent 49-31 in the second half.
“I’m just so proud of our guys,” said Greenfield head coach Rob Salter. “I thought our weak-side defense kept us in the first half. We weren’t very good offensively in the first half, but we took charges, we got them in foul trouble in the first half, which came back to bite them in the second half.”
Hampton Evans led the Knights with 29 points, followed by Aaron Murphy with 27 and Matt Kirby with 17. Evans and Murphy combined for 42 points in the second half.
“It feels good,” Evans said. “That’s our rival school and everybody comes out to that game, so it feels good to beat them. And we lost to them last time, so we wanted a little revenge.”
Jordan Cooper led the Chargers with 17 points, followed by Collin Tanner and Carlos Vazquez with 16 apiece and Nayshin Waller with 12.
The third quarter belonged to Greenfield, as the Knights, top-ranked among NCISAA 1-A teams by MaxPreps.com, made the necessary defensive adjustments to shut down Wayne Country Day, outscoring their opponent 22-7 and only allowing three field goals in a third frame they entered trailing by 10.
“I thought we were tougher,” Salter said. “I thought we wanted it more. I thought we really played together. We won a lot of the 50-50 balls. It’s the first time I saw us, inside, when we’d miss a shot, we didn’t complain, we didn’t say we got fouled, we just played tough. I thought our spacing was good. I just thought we played good basketball, I really do. And in games like that, because Wayne Country Day is so good, your stars have to step up. And I thought Hampton and Aaron did that tonight. And Matt Kirby, all three guys were fantastic tonight.”
Greenfield came out firing in the third, finally getting some stops on the defensive end and cashing in on offense. After the Chargers, who No. 4 in the NCISAA 2-A rankings, extended their lead to 12, the Knights ripped off an 11-0 run to strike to within one, largely thanks to the efforts of Evans, who knocked down a pair of 3-pointers and made it a 44-43 game with a three-point play.
“The first half, I was struggling with shooting the ball and pretty much everything,” Evans said. “I really wasn’t having a good offensive half, and then when halftime came, I was locked in. I said I was going to play better this half, kept my head up and didn’t get down on myself.”
Shortly after, Murphy gave the Knights their first lead of the game at 47-46 with a pair of free throws with four minutes and change left in the third frame.
Greenfield continued to take control as the quarter went along, and took a 54-49 edge into the fourth with Murphy, Evans and Kirby making big play after big play.
“I challenged him,” Salter said. “Hampton’s been playing so well in practice and the games. And he believed in himself. The second half, my three stars, Matt Kirby was great, they absolutely carried us. I’m proud of them. And Aaron Murphy refused to lose tonight. But I challenged him and Hampton, because I thought they were good defensively in the first half, but I didn’t think they were very good offensively in the first half. In the second half, they were great on both ends.”
After the teams went back and forth to start the final frame, a three-point play by Murphy and corner 3 from Evans put the Knights up 10 with a little over five minutes left to play.
The Chargers weren’t done yet, however, as Wayne Country day promptly rattled off a 7-0 run to cut Greenfield’s lead to three. That was as close as it got, however, as unlike in its home loss to Wayne Country Day in the Christmas Tournament, Greenfield made the plays to close out the game, and pushed its lead back to nine with 1:30 left to play.
“We challenged that,” Salter said. “We had to have maturity, we had to want it more. I thought Wayne wanted it more (in the Christmas tournament) at the end, and we made some bonehead mistakes. I thought tonight, at the end of the game, we made our free throws, and then I thought we made some really good decisions. We got the ball in, we got a couple layups off their press, so I thought we did a lot better job of being confident and finishing the game.”
Murphy put the exclamation point on the win with a one-handed dunk that ignited the crowd with under a minute left to play.
Greenfield will host Mount Zion Christian Academy next Thursday, Jan. 27.
WAYNE COUNTRY DAY (73)--Cooper 17, Tanner 16, Vazquez 16, Waller 12, Coles 9, Williams 2, Jones 1.
GREENFIELD (81)--Evans 29, Murphy 27, Kriby 17, Atkinson 5, Sherrod 3.
WCD 23 19 7 24 — 73
GFS 15 17 22 27 — 81
WAYNE COUNTRY DAY (73)--Cooper 17, Tanner 16, Vazquez 16, Waller 12, Coles 9, Williams 2, Jones 1.
GREENFIELD (81)--Evans 29, Murphy 27, Kirby 17, Atkinson 5, Sherrod 3
