There’s going to be a new Eastern Region champion. King’s Fork made sure of it Tuesday night by knocking off defending champ Booker T. Washington 44-43 in a quarterfinal game on the Bookers’ home court.
The victory set up an all-Southeastern District semifinal game between King’s Fork and Deep Creek Friday at Churchland.
“This was a great win in a very tough place,” said Bulldogs coach Josh Worrell. “There’s not much difference between playing here and at Nansemond River, and I think that helped us.”
King’s Fork didn’t seem bothered by the boisterous Bookers crowd, many who were talking about a return trip to Churchland before the game even started.
It would be a much different story when the game began. Booker T. Washington led 25-24 at the half, but King’s Fork wasn’t concerned especially since the Bulldogs got only one point from leading scorer Jamar Wertz.
“With Wertz only getting one point and we were down by only one, I knew we had weathered the storm and taken their best,” Worrell said. “Now we just had to go out there and take care of business.”
The Bulldogs quieted the Bookers crowd with an 11-3 run to gain the momentum.
Leading the way was Wertz.
He scored seven of his 13 points during that stretch to give the Bulldogs a 35-28 lead with 4:04 left in the third quarter.
Booker T. Washington couldn’t answer. As it was just 1 of 8 from the field in that span.
Knowing the Bookers were struggling and that center Jay Copeland had picked up his fourth foul, Worrell decided to hold the ball for the final three minutes of the quarter and a seven-point lead.
The Bookers battled back, cutting the deficit to two with 7:06 left in the game, but King’s Fork pushed its lead back to six with 3:29 left.
Booker T. made one last run. Center DeShawn Painter scored on back-to-back shots, including a reverse layup with 2:23 left that made it 42-40.
Derek Wright made two free throws with 26.8 seconds left to give the Bulldogs a four-point lead, but Quintin Spady answered with his fifth 3-pointer of the game to make it 44-43 with 14.9 seconds left.
The Bookers didn’t foul immediately which allowed 10 precious seconds to run off the clock.
They finally fouled Rar-kesh Harris who missed the first end of a one-and-one opportunity. The Bookers got the rebound but their last-second desperation 3-pointer shot was wide left.
Delicious
Digg
Reddit
Facebook
Google
Yahoo
