Vikings' defense shuts down Cougars

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on February 22, 2014 11:21 PM

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RUDY COGGINS

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KINSTON -- Goldsboro misfired at inopportune times in its offensive attack and state-ranked Kinston seemed to capitalize on every mistake in assassin-like fashion Friday evening.

The outcome ended miserably for the Cougars.

Mykel Hart and Andrew Lopez led three Vikings in double figures with 14 points apiece during a 71-44 romp in the inaugural Eastern Carolina 2-A Conference tournament championship game.

North Carolina recruit Brandon Ingram added 10 points for Kinston, which won its eighth consecutive tournament crown to go along with eight straight regular-season titles since 2007.

"Our offense definitely wasn't with us tonight," GHS head coach Russell Stephens said. "We missed too many easy ones. At some point, playing against a team that can score the basketball like they can, you've got to be able to score with them."

Goldsboro's Jayln Moore emerged the game's top scorer with 16 points, while Rasheen Artis provided 10. The Vikings held sharp-shooting guard Myron Carmon to a single basket which came 42 seconds into the final quarter.

Kinston's height and matchup zone troubled Goldsboro all evening. The top-seeded Vikings (20-4 overall) defended the 3-point line, denied dribble penetration and won the battle on the boards, 30-22.

"Their size didn't get us the first two times we played them, but it definitely played a part in the game tonight," said Stephens, whose team committed 17 turnovers. "I thought their defense was really good. They're so long and big, we didn't attack it (the zone) well.

"We didn't set picks in it. We didn't cut to the basket. We tried to get Jayln isolated on the post, which he played big for us all night. But for us, we've got to be able to knock down some outside shots. They definitely forced us out of our game tonight."

The Cougars shot 17 of 39 from the floor for the game, but hit just two 3-pointers -- one each from Rasheed Jackson and reserve Tyrique McClain -- that came in the second half.

"(Number) 1 (Artis) and 3 (Carmon) ... all of their guys ... they shot it fairly well the other night against South Lenoir, so we knew we had to guard the 3-point line," Kinston head coach Perry Tyndall said. "They've hurt us really bad with some dribble penetration. Our guys were just answering some challenges (tonight)."

Kinston broke the game open with a 10-3 run early in the second quarter. Darius Dunn's driving layup off of Tiquan Canady's assist capped the surge and forced Stephens to burn a 30-second timeout.

The Vikings led 34-17 at halftime.

Goldsboro pulled to within 45-30 late in the third quarter, but Kinston responded with a 7-0 run to squelch any further attempts at a rally.

"I hope we can learn from this," Stephens said as he walked toward the locker room.