LA GRANGE — Anytime North Lenoir’s offense hiccupped in the last 30 seconds of Tuesday’s game, visiting C.B. Aycock made the most of it.
As two different Hawks managed to steal possession as time winded down, the Falcons somehow recovered ownership and a chance to make a game-winning play. Only their offensive glitches were a bit more costly in the final seconds as North Lenoir held on to the 52-51 win.
NL (2-1) played C.B. Aycock in the season opener last week, winning 67-45.
Hawks coach Anthony Loftin said Aycock was much improved from when the two teams took the court a week ago, so his guys had to bring the pressure.
“By putting our hands up, it makes them lob a pass,” he said, “and by lobbing a pass, we think we’ll be able to get it.”
North Lenoir tallied 13 steals in the win.
Four Hawks scored in double figures Tuesday, led by senior guard Jauquez Jones’ team-high 13 points. He also had four rebounds and two steals.
“Size is nothing,” Jones said of the team noticeably taller than his Hawks. “We saw how they reacted to (our trap defense) last week. They have no true point guard, so we just had to keep it up on them.”
The Hawks took an early 7-0 lead, going up by as many as 18.
North Lenoir’s physical trap defense made an impact, as Hawks swiped balls clean from the Aycock players’ hands to start the third quarter. Steals from Jalen Robinson and Javonta King to start the period resulted in six NL points, including Robinson’s reverse layup to go up 42-26. King led the Hawks with seven assists and four steals.
CBA (3-2) managed to diminish North Lenoir’s hefty lead to five points to start the last quarter. And with 47.5 seconds left in the game, Aycock’s Neil Clark fed the rock to Bryce Jordan, who cut inside to score and bring the Falcons one point away from the Hawks, 52-51.
The Falcons’ Mike Williams, whose foul gave the ball to North Lenoir with three seconds on the board, managed to get a defensive rebound, but the ball was batted away by a lurking Landon Letchworth. Letchworth did knock it out, but the Falcons couldn’t land a scoring play.
“I thought they were a little bit better prepared to handle the pressure,” Loftin said as he juxtaposed this meeting with the last. “I thought they did some different things and we had to make adjustments.”
Said fine-tuning came in the last quarter, after the Hawks were outscored 18-9. Loftin said trying to slow the ball down and going up for quick baskets opened the floor for CBA’s Williams to grab rebounds.
He set a school record with 29 rebounds against Goldsboro last week and hit a game-winning 3-pointer against Southern Nash Monday, Loftin said. C.B. Aycock hasn’t lost since the opener, and Williams grabbed a game-high 12 boards, a block and 14 points to his line — several which were off dunks.
North Lenoir heads to Farmville Central Tuesday.
North Lenoir girls 38, CBA 37
It was a close call for this one, too.
CBA’s Conner Vinsor only made one shot Tuesday night, but it was probably the most important. She drained a mid-range jumper with 25 seconds left in the game to get her team one point away from North Lenoir’s 38-37 lead.
On a Falcons’ inbounds pass, Erica Lee — who was a few minutes back in from leaving the game with a bloody nose to change jerseys — stole the ball and held off visiting C.B. Aycock Tuesday. The score remained final, as the Hawks scraped up a 38-37 win.
Lee finished with four points as Laura Haerer led the Hawks with 12 and nine rebounds. Junior Quoya Porter had 11 points, four rebounds and a pair of assists, leading the team with three steals.
The Hawks tried to seal the deal in the fourth quarter, when a Porter 3-ball gave the Hawks a 10-point advantage. Her last two shots were 3-pointers.
But with C.B. Aycock’s best shooter, Mykel Sowes, reappearing at the foul line, the Falcons were able to cut it close late. She finished with 21 points, hitting eight of 19 free throws. Sowes had a game-high 17 rebounds.
North Lenoir (1-2) travels to Farmville Central Tuesday.
Jessika Morgan can be reached at 252-559-1078 and Jessika.Morgan@Kinston.com. Follow her on Twitter at @JessikaMorgan.