Ayden Grifton Charges Past Topsail. 57-40
Ayden Grifton Boys’ Chargers (19-6) came out and made a stand against Topsail (14-13) on Tuesday night. AG went on a 6-0 run until Topsail scored with five minutes left in the first quarter. The Pirates picked up their defense and rallied back too within one point 6-5 with 3:30 left in first quarter. One minute to go in the first quarter AG was up 11-10 and AG hit a 2-pointer. With two seconds left TJ Nixon for the Pirates scored a 2-pointer which kept them within one point of the Chargers at the end of the first quarter.
The Chargers came out on a 5-0 run until the Pirates scored with 3:15 left in the second quarter. AG went into halftime leading by six points over the Pirates, 26-20.
“The first half we couldn’t screen them because they were fighting through the screens. They were being real physical on us. We weren’t getting many wide open shots, and as Top-sail was getting wide open shots they were making them and therefore we couldn’t get a good lead on them in the first half,” said Coach Murphrey.
As the second half started the Chargers came out firing and made a lead for themselves. When their was 3:00 minutes left the Pirates had fought back and were down by seven points, 39-32. When the fourth quarter had started it was all said and down. The Charges had charged into an 11 points led with 1:48 left in the ballgame, 55-34. The Chargers only scored another basket before the game was over, while the Pirates scored three baskets to end the game, 57-40.
“What helped us in the second half was they didn’t shot as well as they did in the first half,” Coach Murphrey stated. “We know every game is going to be tough at this stage and so we just try to survive anyway we can, it will be a big challenge for us going against that ball club.”
AG was led by Matt Dougherty with 25 points and Steffen McGhee with 15. The Topsail Pirates were led by DJ Fuller with 10 and TJ Nixon with seven.
Ayden Grifton will play Pender on Thursday night at 7 p.m. either at Pender or at Ayden Grifton.
