The Eastern Wayne Warriors defeated the Goldsboro Cougars on Tuesday night in a game the Warriors controlled from the start.
Coming into the game, the Warriors and the Cougars were tied for second place in the Neuse Six 2A Conference standings with a 3-1 record in conference play.
The strong conference record for Goldsboro resulted from a recent change in form on the basketball court from the young team, which had won three of its last four games in conference play after winning just one of its last 10 conference games.
Eastern Wayne’s strong play in the conference was no surprise, as the Warriors had won nine of 12 games before entering conference play.
Tuesday night’s game started off as a low-scoring affair, and Eastern Wayne held a 10-6 lead at the end of the first quarter.
Six of Eastern Wayne’s points came from Trinity Smith, who seemed to be the one bright spot on offense in the first quarter.
After a competitive first quarter, Eastern Wayne took control of the game in the second quarter with a 10-0 run to make the score 20-6.
More from this section
Goldsboro’s Leila Ingram then scored the Cougars’ only basket of the quarter to make the score 20-8 before Eastern Wayne answered back with five straight points to take a 25-8 halftime lead.
Goldsboro started off the third quarter by playing some of its best basketball of the game, and the Cougars outscored the Warriors 6-2 to cut Eastern Wayne’s lead down to 27-14.
However, the Cougars’ momentum at the beginning of the third quarter quickly faded as the Warriors went on a 10-2 run to end the third quarter up 37-16.
The Warriors’ domination continued in the fourth quarter, and at the end of the game Eastern Wayne came out on top 53-33.
With the win, Eastern Wayne improved to 13-4 overall and 4-1 in conference play, while Goldsboro fell to 4-11 overall and 3-2 in conference play.
Both teams are back on the court Friday. Goldsboro will host first-place Beddingfield (16-1, 5-0) at 6:30 p.m., while Eastern Wayne will entertain Princeton (10-7, 1-4) at 6 p.m.