Wildcats Grab First Place in SED
"Verdana","sans-serif"'>The two Champions of the Southeastern District during
Advertisement
the regular season and tournament a year ago squared off in Suffolk on Friday
night as the Great Bridge Wildcats visited the Nansemond River Warriors in a
battle between undefeated teams with first place in the league standings on the
line.
"Verdana","sans-serif"'>Great Bridge, which won the regular season title a year
ago, shook off an early six-point deficit and seized control in the second
quarter on their way to a 66-48 triumph.
The victory improves the Wildcats' record to 7-0 overall and they now
have done something for first time in school history.
style=> That's sweep all three Suffolk schools - -
Nansemond River, King's Fork and Lakeland - - on the road.
"Verdana","sans-serif"'>"Nansemond River, it's a hard place to play.
style=> Great fans, the kids really love the
atmosphere. We took their best shot in
the first quarter, and I thought they came at us right there at the end of the
third and beginning of the fourth, we held on and good things happened,"
commented Great Bridge Head Basketball Coach
normal'>Gary Obenour afterwards.
"Verdana","sans-serif"'>As Nansemond River concentrated much of their defensive
attention on junior guard and D-1 prospect Marcus
Evans of Great Bridge, sophomore guard Aaron
Ferguson, a transfer from Deep Creek, exploded with a career-high 20 points
on 7-of-10 shooting from the field and 6-for-7 at the foul line.
"Verdana","sans-serif"'>In addition to his offensive exploits, Ferguson
provided five rebounds, three assists and three steals, giving Great Bridge a
much-needed boost off the bench in the backcourt.
style=>
"Verdana","sans-serif"'>"It was real critical," answered Ferguson when asked if
he felt he needed to give his team a lift.
"My role is defense. Coach is
always on me about defense and he tells me my offense is going to come, be
patient and I was coming off a bad game on Tuesday night.
style=> Tonight I let my time come when they went
Box-and-one on Marcus.
"Verdana","sans-serif"'>"They're big inside and we had to put bodies on them,
so we've been practicing rebounding, boxing out and crashing the boards all
week. We were able to secure the
rebounds before we leaked out and everybody stepped up."
"Verdana","sans-serif"'>Facing multiple defenses the entire night, Evans got
his first points with 55 seconds left in the opening quarter and still managed
to put up respectable numbers of 16 points on 6-of-12 shooting with eight
rebounds, three assists and three steals, playing more of a facilitator role.
"Verdana","sans-serif"'>"Any time you play against an
normal'>Ed Young team, he's going to throw different things at you.
style=> We knew coming in we had to be prepared to
change things up. I had complete
confidence in my teammates and fortunately we were able to adjust to it really
well. We didn't want to get into playing
their style of ball because that's how we turn it over," commented Evans.
"Verdana","sans-serif"'>"This is definitely a huge game.
style=> We kind of had a chip on our shoulder from
last year losing to them here and in the district playoffs.
style=> We knew if we could get a win here and make a
statement, we'd be in a good place the rest of the district."
"Verdana","sans-serif"'>Down 8-2 only five minutes into the game, the Wildcats
didn't panic and closed the first half with a 31-15 stretch to go up 10 at
intermission. In the second half, Great
Bridge built a 17-point advantage when Nansemond River went on a 14-2 run,
keyed by sophomore Scott Spencer, to
trim the deficit to only six. But Great
Bridge responded by scoring 15 of the game's next 17 points.
"Verdana","sans-serif"'>Patience and experience were big factors for the Cats
in those crucial times.
"Verdana","sans-serif"'>"We have four starters back and
normal'>Mark Madison might as well be a starter because he got starter
minutes last year," noted Obenour.
style=> "They've been through it, understand what
happened here last year and let's be honest, we won
the district, but Nansemond River beat us twice last year.
style=> We still have a long way to go, it's not
over."
"Verdana","sans-serif"'>When Great Bridge went to a three-pronged guard attack
in the second period, Ferguson flourished with his ability to create scoring opportunities
off the dribble. Their defense stymied
the Warriors' offensive as well.
"Verdana","sans-serif"'>While Ferguson scored eight points in the second
quarter, Nansemond River shot just 4-of-14 from the field over those eight
minutes. For the game, the Warriors
finished 16-for-56 (29%).
"Verdana","sans-serif"'>Nansemond River came in averaging 71.6 points per game.
style=> The Warriors were held to 48 points and shot 0-for-15
from three-point range.
"Verdana","sans-serif"'>"We have not played a whole lot of zone this year and I
know you've got to show Ed some different things," pointed out
class=SpellE>Obenour. "We started in man, pressed them a little bit in
the second quarter and then we went to our 2-3 matchup.
style=> Defensively, we mixed it up well."
"Verdana","sans-serif"'>The two leading scorers for Nansemond River, junior guard
Devon Oakley and senior forward
style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'>Ed Drew
style='font-weight:normal'>, were held to 12 points combined
on 4-of-24 shooting from the field.
"Verdana","sans-serif"'>For Nansemond River, they have to bounce back quickly
to stay in second place in the league and remain only a game back of Great
Bridge when they visit a Western Branch team on Tuesday that is also 5-1 in the
district. The Wildcats have the luxury
of playing five of their final seven games at home, including dates with
Nansemond River and King's Fork.
"Verdana","sans-serif"'>
href="http://vmedia.rivals.com/uploads/914/1342345.WMA">Postgame Audio with
Great Bridge Coach Gary Obenour
style='mso-special-character:line-break'>
style='font-size:10.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif"'>Stats:
style='font-size:10.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif"'>Great
Bridge 66:
normal'>
Aaron Ferguson - - 20Pts. 7-10FG, 6-7FT, 5Reb. 3Ast. 3Stl.
Marcus Evans - - 16Pts. 6-12FG, 4-8FT, 8Reb. 3Ast. 3Stl.
Byron Williams - - 14Pts. 5-11FG, 3-6 3's, 6Reb. 2Ast. 2Stl.
Mark Madison - - 7Pts. 3-9FG, 4Stl.
Andre Banks - - 5Pts. 2-6FG, 3Stl.
style='font-size:10.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif"'>Nansemond
River 48:
normal'>
Scott Spencer - - 16Pts. 5-8FG, 6-10FT, 4Reb. 2Ast. 3Blk. 4Stl
class=GramE>.
William Goodman - - 8Pts. 2-9FG, 4-5FT
Devon Oakley - - 7Pts. 3-14FG, 1-4FT, 6Reb. 2Ast. 2Stl.
Ed Drew - - 5Pts. 1-10FG, 3-5FT, 5Reb. 2Blk.
Kendric Washington - - 5Pts. 2-3FG, 7Reb.
style='font-size:10.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif"'>
style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'>
115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";text-decoration:none;text-underline:
none'>Matthew Hatfield
style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>
href="http://www.virginiapreps.com">
style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";
text-decoration:none;text-underline:none'>VirginiaPreps.com
style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'>
115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>, part of the Rivals.com
href="http://www.twitter.com/hatfieldsports">
normal'>
text-decoration:none;text-underline:none'>Hatfield's Twitter page
style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'>
115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'> for more sports related info and
updates. To contact Matthew, please
style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'>
115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";text-decoration:none;text-underline:
none'>hatfieldsports2k4@yahoo.com
normal'>,
and don't forget to listen to him on the VirginiaPreps.com Hour every Saturday
style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'>
115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";text-decoration:none;text-underline:
none'>ESPN Radio 94.1
style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>
style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'>
115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";text-decoration:none;text-underline:
none'>Cox 11 Sports Report
style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>.
style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'>
115%;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif"'>
Sign up for premium access to VirginiaPreps.com with a 7-day free trial!
Check out our FREE top prospect listings:
Class of 2012 |
Class of 2013 |
Class of 2014 |
Class of 2015 (Premium)
Follow all the hoops commitments via
our
Basketball Commitments Tracker (FREE!)
The
VIP Board provides the latest in recruiting updates plus in-depth top
prospects lists for football, basketball and baseball!