Greensville spoils Southampton’s Senior Night festivities
Published 1:32 pm Wednesday, February 11, 2015
COURTLAND
On Wednesday evening, seven seniors, Shane Agunzo, Raiquan Baker, Russell Ballance, Tyler Grant, Daron Lundy, Cedric Parham and Hunter Peck, took their last stroll across the hardwood with their loved ones. The stage was set for these particular Southampton Indians to have one final triumph in front of the home crowd. Greensville County, however, spoiled the party.
From the opening tip, the pace of the game was hectic. Flashy passes had the crowd on its feet, oohing and aahing as the teams traded buckets left and right.
Jameson Long gets ahead of his defender for a layup. Long had eight points and two rebounds. — Murray Thompson | Tidewater News
“We came out, hoping to use the energy from Senior Night to set the tempo of the game,” said head coach Sharone Bailey. “We did a good job of running and making the right passes.”
Toward the end of the first quarter, though, play was getting sloppy. Greensville took a 16-14 lead just before the clock expired.
Minutes later, with the score tied at 18, Greensville was assessed a technical foul. The chippiness between the two squads should have benefited the home crowd, but the Eagles used it as motivation to close the half on a 25-4 run.
They simply out-hustled their opponents for loose balls and rebounds, and pushed the ball in transition for easy buckets thereafter.
“We didn’t get back on defense, and we were just missing shots,” Bailey said. “We missed eight-consecutive shots and they’d run out and score.”
Cedric Parham goes up for a layup. — Murray Thompson | Tidewater News
Trailing at the break, 43-22, the Indians came out firing from behind the arc. Southampton knocked down a pair from deep, and the Indians started to make a run.
“We clawed back in it the best we could and we got it back down to 13 or so (50-36 at the quarter break), but they got an and-1 and were able to push it back to 20,” Bailey said.
The Eagles continued to hold onto their double-digit advantage by slowing the game down in the fourth quarter, eventually pulling away, 69-40.
Agunzo had five points, five rebounds and four assists.
The Indians have now dropped 11 of their last 15 contests, and fall to 8-13 overall with the loss. Friday night’s game against Surry concluded the regular season, but the results were not in before deadline. If victorious, Southampton would top last year’s win total by one.