LELAND – It was a tale of two cities Wednesday night at North Brunswick High School as the Lady Scorpions and the girls from Trask battled down to the wire, while the Scorpion boys opened up a huge first-quarter lead, took some time off in the middle, then put the pedal to the metal at the end to even their record at 1-1.
CeCe Murphy scored a game-high 17 points and teammate Shawnita Green added 11 as Trask scored the final eight points of the game for a come-from-behind 46-44 win over North Brunswick on Wednesday in a non-conference girls basketball game in Leland.
The Scorpion boys gained a measure of revenge by vaulting out to a 21-7 first-period lead – opening that advantage to 27-7 minutes into the second quarter – en route to a 70-48 win over the Titan boys.
Girls basketball
Things looked bleak for Trask after a basket by North Brunswick’s Katrina Brown gave her Lady Scorpions a 44-38 lead with 2:39 second remaining in the game.
But the Lady Titans did not fold the tent. They rallied with a solid defense that produced three late Lady Scorpion turnovers as they battled back for the victory.
“When it comes to our team effort is not the issue, inexperience is, so that comeback was marvelous,” Trask Coach Lindsay Noble said. “Even though we fell behind late I had a feeling it could happen. This group has a lot of heart, now we just have to get the brains going.”
Everything was going, and going right, for the Lady Titans (1-1), especially over the last 2:39 seconds. Up to then, and just prior to Brown’s basket that produced a six-point Lady Scorpion lead, the two teams traded jabs, and the lead, with the largest lead belonging to Trask at 30-24 with 2:04 remaining in the third quarter.
But the North girls showed a little resilience of their own by battling back to tie the score at 31-31 just 21 seconds into the final stanza on a converted free throw by A. J. Mays.
The Lady Titans regained the lead and held a 38-36 advantage with 6:22 left in regulation on a basket by Murphy, but that would be the last time the ball dropped through the bottom of the Lady Titans’ net until Saniyyah McCallister hit a free throw with 2:32 on the game clock.
In between those Trask points the Lady Scorpions used six points from Brown around a basket by Tiffany Keaton to open a six-point lead at 44-38.
McCallister’s free throw made it 44-39, a pair of charity tosses by Tay Gray narrowed the gap to 44-41, and a field goal by Murphy brought Trask to within one at 44-43 with 66 seconds remaining.
Green scored to give the Lady Titans the lead at 45-44 at the 1:08 mark, and Gay added a free throw with 10.2 ticks left to account for the final score.
Trask 8-12-11-15=46
N. Brunswick 9-13- 8-14=44
Trask: Tay Gray 3 3-4 9, Chrishonda Brown 0 2-4 2, CeCe Murphy 5 6-14 17, Beth Williams 1 0-0 2, Shawnita Geen 4 3-6 11, Saniyyah McCallister 1 1-2 3, Kate Friessen 1 0-1 2. Totals: 15 15-33 46. 3-Point Baskets: CeCe Murphy 1.
North Brunswick: A. J.Mays 2 1-2 6, Tiye Cheatham 2 0-0 5, Gracan Deal 4 0-2 9, Tiffany Keaton 3 0-2 6, Katrina Brown 3 2-6 8, Nikayla Ramsey 5 0-2 10. Totals: 19 3-14 44. 3-Point Baskets: A. J. Mays 1, Tiye Cheatham 1, Gracan Deal 1.
Boys basketball
A full-court press ignited by the quick Scorpion guards created eight first-quarter turnovers, many of which led to easy buckets, as the North Brunswick boys scored the first 12 points of the game en route to a 21-7 first-period lead.
Nik Sloan was the recipient of some fast-break passes, adding a long-range jumper to the mix, to score eight of his team-high 20 points in that first eight minutes. But the Titans seemed to settle in behind the sniping and rebounding of junior Rasheed Brown and the actually reduced the deficit by four (33-23) at the intermission.
The two teams battled evenly in the third quarter and into the fourth quarter before the Scorpions methodically pulled away. The Titans were still relatively close at 58-46 with 4:13 left in the game but that would be as close as they would get. North tacked on three points to Trask’s one to make it 61-47, then went on a 9-1 run to end the game and produce the final score.
“That first quarter is what we expect, that type of tempo and that type of pressure,” North Brunswick Coach Bryan Hayes said. “We want to play in-your-face defense and our goal is to make the other team not want to come out of the locker room for the second half. In the second and third quarters we lost that intensity and we have to work on keeping it up for a full 32 minutes.”
About the only Titan who had any scoring success against the Scorpions was junior guard Rasheed Brown. Brown scored 13 points in Trask’s 16-point second quarter, hit for eight in the third period, and had seven more in the fourth quarter for a game-high total of 31 points. Brown also pulled down 14 rebounds and had two assists. The entire Scorpion team only had 12 boards.
“It’s very difficult to stop him,” Hayes said. “We talked about that at halftime. We realized things would go through him and we have to do a better job of realizing that and take it away.”
The North Brunswick boys (1-1) and girls (1-1) are now off until next Tuesday, when they will cross the Cape Fear Bridge for games at the Michael Jordan Gymnasium against Laney.
The Titan boys (0-2) and girls (1-1) head up Highway 17 to Holly Ridge for games at Dixon.
Trask 7-16-12-13=48
N. Brunswick 21-12-15-22=70
North Brunswick: Adam Jacobs 3 4-6 11, Ronald Roland 4 0-0 8, Tre Graham 2 0-0 5, Nik Sloan 9 1-2 20, Brandon Weaver 4 3-5 11, Terrence Brown 3 0-0 6, Tyler Hickey 1 0-0 2, Jabril Robinson 2 3-4 7. Totals: 28 11-17 70. 3-Point Baskets: Adam Jacobs 1, Tre Graham 1, Nik Sloan 1.
Trask: Tamarack Bolden 2 1-2 5, Rasheed Brown 7 12-15 31, Dakota McFadden 0 0-2 0, Tynaffit Davis 0 0-2 0, Dakari Jackson 1 0-0 2, D. J. Love 1 0-0 2, Marcos Porter 1 2-2 4, Andrew Chomiczewski 2 0-2 4. Totals: 13 17-31 48. 3-Point Baskets: Rasheed Brown 5.
