BOYS' BASKETBALL: CBA gains controversial win over EW

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on February 10, 2017 10:00 AM

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PIKEVILLE -- Eastern Wayne, for the second time in a two-day period, seemed destined to stage another heart-stopping comeback Thursday night.

A human error thwarted the Warriors' rally.

Down 73-71 with 5.5 seconds remaining, EW's Eric Agee took the inbounds pass, drove the length of the court, found an open lane and scored on a finger-tip roll.

By all accounts, the horn should have sounded.

But it didn't.

The clock never started.

Aycock inbounded the ball and drew a foul with 1.7 seconds to go.

The incident sent the Warrior faithful into a frenzy as they shouted "OT! OT" while the officials met near the scorer's table. They summoned both coaches to midcourt after their discussion.

Arms crossed, Golden Falcons head coach David Elmore nodded his head and headed back to his bench. Meanwhile, EW head coach Bill Manning pleaded that the game should go into overtime.

"They said they didn't know how much time was on the clock right there, so there was no way they could go back to determine how much should be on, how much should not be on whatever happened in that situation," Elmore said.

Lofton-Russell calmly drained both free throws, giving CBA a 75-73 victory and snapping its 11-game skid in Eastern Carolina 3-A/4-A Conference play this season.

"It has been a long time coming," Elmore said.

The Golden Falcons (5-17 overall, 1-11 ECC) have won the last two regular-season meetings in the series. However, EW holds a 13-12 edge overall since 2006.

Manning exited the locker room.

His voice barely a whisper, he gave his interpretation -- off the record -- of the officials' assessment at the end of the game. Then Manning complemented his team for its drive in the final 5 minutes of play.

"I love my team's heart. They never quit. They never think they're out of it," he said. "They always feel like they can win the game in the end. However, we get away from our character early in the game.

"Then we think we can just turn it on when we need to turn it on, and that's a problem."

The Warriors (10-13, 6-6) employed their full-court defense, which sped up the game and caused a few turnovers. The miscues helped fuel Eastern Wayne's 27-14 run over the final 4:59 of regulation.

Wesley Case buried two 3-pointers and Age answered with a key bucket as the Warriors climbed to within 61-56 with 3:25 on the clock.

"We knew the pressure was going to come," said Elmore, who pointed to the Warriors' 23-point comeback on Tuesday. "We knew they were capable of that and it was all about how we handled it."

Aycock displayed patience in its transition game, drew a shooting foul when it attacked the basket and stepped to the charity stripe. Eli Batts (game-high 25 points) and Tyquan Hampton each responded with two free throws to stretch the lead back to 65-56.

Agee heated up.

The senior's offensive putback after Case's second 3-ball of the contest made it 70-67 with just over a minute to go. Agee (19 second-half points) converted another offensive rebound, which pulled EW to within 70-69 in the final half minute.

After a flurry of loose-ball activity, a free throw by Lofton-Russell set the table for Age's game-tying basket --and controversial finish.

"They showed a lot of fight, and they showed toughness right there to pull out a win," Elmore said.