Reco's dunk lifts WCDS past Trinity
By Andrew Stevens
Published in Sports on January 29, 2010 1:46 PM
Reco McCarter didn't just put the game away.
He did it with an exclamation point.
With Wayne Country Day leading Trinity Christian 43-42 with less than a minute to play, McCarter drove down the heart of the lane, dunked and was fouled. The Virginia Commonwealth signee completed the three-point play and the Chargers stunned the No. 3-ranked Crusaders 50-44.
"Tonight we needed somebody to step up and be aggressive and make some plays for us," said Wayne Country Day head coach Terry Jones. "Reco did that down the stretch. He being one of our leaders made a big play for us."
McCarter finished with a game-high 24 points and pulled down 11 rebounds. He followed up an effort in which he was held to just 10 points in a 72-71 home victory over No. 5-ranked Greenfield on Tuesday night.
"Personally, I'm sure Reco felt he let his team down with the performance he had on Tuesday," said Jones. "He struggled a little bit, but he gave us so many other things. I'm sure tonight he intentionally came in looking to take the lead and pay his team back."
The Crusaders clung to a 37-34 lead to start the fourth quarter, but the Chargers opened with a 7-0 run and never trailed again. Trinity twice cut the deficit to a single point, but could never close the gap.
Wayne Country Day (18-7 overall) played zone defense all night in hopes of neutralizing Trinity's height advantage. Damontre Harris, a 6-foot-9 University of South Carolina recruit, led the Crusaders with 17 points and 10 rebounds. No other Crusader scored in double figures.
"We feel like if we control the tempo and make teams play half-court basketball, we line up so much better," said Jones. "We can run with the best of them at times, but that's not our strongest point. A lot of times we'll try to play to our strength and the guys did a great job tonight."
Concerned about how his team would respond after knocking off Greenfield, Jones got his answer as the Chargers scored the first 10 points of the ballgame.
"That was huge," said Jones. "I told the guys before the game I was very concerned. Tuesday took a lot out of us physically, but even more emotionally. I knew being able to bounce back from an emotional win was going to be tough but they did it."
Rashid Williams and Tyson Pearson collected 10 and nine points, respectively, for Wayne Country Day. Weather permitting, the Chargers visit Upper Room of Raleigh tonight.