The Burlington School relishes local tournament crown
by Alex Simon
Burlington Times-News correspondent
GIBSONVILLE — The Burlington School’s undefeated season collected another trophy Wednesday night as the Spartans won the Eastern Guilford Christmas Holiday Tournament against the host Wildcats 77-55 in boys’ basketball.
“They were excited about playing — since I’ve been here, this is the first local tournament that we’ve played in,” said The Burlington School coach Rob Johnson. “The guys know guys on the other team, so I knew we would play hard and compete.”
The Spartans pressed the Wildcats all night, resulting in multiple turnovers and easy layups. That press held the Wildcats to 23 points in the first half, pleasing Johnson.
“The whole thing for us was trying to control the tempo,” Johnson said. “(Eastern Guilford) score a lot of points normally, averaging 75, 76 points a game. We wanted to slow them down a bit and not allow them to run and get easy baskets.”
The respect Johnson has for Eastern Guilford was returned by Wildcats coach Joseph Spinks after the game.
“I loved watching them play the last two nights — but I didn’t like watching them play (in the final).” Spinks said. “We didn’t execute and they did, and that’s why they won.”
Jordan Nelson was named tournament’s Most Valuable Player for the three-day event, scoring 58 points across three games. Nelson contributed 19 points in the title game.
Both teams found foul trouble to be inescapable. John Meeks led The Burlington School with 21 points before fouling out early in the fourth quarter.
Eastern Guilford sophomore guard Montez Venable played less than 10 minutes in the game as he recorded three fouls in the first half and picked up a fourth early in the third quarter. He scored four points.
Spinks vented his frustrations about the foul calls. “Our leading scorer picking up four fouls in about six minutes of play didn’t help,” he said.
Spinks also mentioned that losing Nic Cheeley to an injury Tuesday night and Ramal Patterson to a sprained ankle in the first half hurt his team.
Eastern Guilford’s Jaylen Alston led all scorers with 22 points and was named to the all-tournament team, as was Venable and The Burlington School’s Meeks.
by Alex Simon
Burlington Times-News correspondent
GIBSONVILLE — The Burlington School’s undefeated season collected another trophy Wednesday night as the Spartans won the Eastern Guilford Christmas Holiday Tournament against the host Wildcats 77-55 in boys’ basketball.
“They were excited about playing — since I’ve been here, this is the first local tournament that we’ve played in,” said The Burlington School coach Rob Johnson. “The guys know guys on the other team, so I knew we would play hard and compete.”
The Spartans pressed the Wildcats all night, resulting in multiple turnovers and easy layups. That press held the Wildcats to 23 points in the first half, pleasing Johnson.
“The whole thing for us was trying to control the tempo,” Johnson said. “(Eastern Guilford) score a lot of points normally, averaging 75, 76 points a game. We wanted to slow them down a bit and not allow them to run and get easy baskets.”
The respect Johnson has for Eastern Guilford was returned by Wildcats coach Joseph Spinks after the game.
“I loved watching them play the last two nights — but I didn’t like watching them play (in the final).” Spinks said. “We didn’t execute and they did, and that’s why they won.”
Jordan Nelson was named tournament’s Most Valuable Player for the three-day event, scoring 58 points across three games. Nelson contributed 19 points in the title game.
Both teams found foul trouble to be inescapable. John Meeks led The Burlington School with 21 points before fouling out early in the fourth quarter.
Eastern Guilford sophomore guard Montez Venable played less than 10 minutes in the game as he recorded three fouls in the first half and picked up a fourth early in the third quarter. He scored four points.
Spinks vented his frustrations about the foul calls. “Our leading scorer picking up four fouls in about six minutes of play didn’t help,” he said.
Spinks also mentioned that losing Nic Cheeley to an injury Tuesday night and Ramal Patterson to a sprained ankle in the first half hurt his team.
Eastern Guilford’s Jaylen Alston led all scorers with 22 points and was named to the all-tournament team, as was Venable and The Burlington School’s Meeks.
