North Duplin’s DuJuan Armwood, with ball, drives up court against Union’s Cameron Wright during first-half action Tuesday evening. (Rudy Coggins|mountolivetribune.com)
North Duplin’s Branson Martin (20) goes up for a shot while Union’s Lawrencio Grimaldi (3) and Ayden Wrampe (35) defend on the play. (Rudy Coggins|mountolivetribune.com)
Union’s Lawrencio Grimaldo (3) knocks the ball away from North Duplin’s Trashawn Ruffin (54) on a second-half shot attempt. Watching the play is the Rebels’ Luke Kelly. (Rudy Coggins|mountolivetribune.com)
CALYPSO — Don’t take Union for granted.North Duplin head boys’ basketball coach Jeff Byrd issued that warning before the Carolina 1A foes clashed on the hardwood Tuesday evening.
Byrd’s team listened.
The Rebels seized a commanding 21-point lead after one quarter and cruised to an 83-39 victory.
“I told them a team like this ain’t got nothing to lose, so they’re going to leave it all on the line,” Byrd said. “You come up with a bad night [playing] and you give them life. You want to jump on these guys and go from there.”
North Duplin needed a few minutes to gain control.
The Rebels led 17-9 before they closed out the opening period with a 13-0 run. Offensive rebounds which led to free throw attempts and turnovers sucked the energy out of the Spartans, who lost their 23rd consecutive conference outing.
“The way they were playing [at the start] made us get out of whack,” Byrd said. “We tried to slow it down … took us a while to regroup. I think we’re getting there not being as selfish and moving the ball around a little bit. We’re starting to crash the boards and live on second [chance] shots.
“We let the game come to us and we got a lot of easy baskets.”
DuJuan Armwood emerged as the Rebels’ leading scorer with 12 points.
Branson Martin, Micah Lesasane and Donovan Armwood poured in 11 points apiece. Trashawn Ruffin supplied eight points. Xander Mele, Luke Kelly and Brady Byrd each chipped in five points.
In all, 12 of 13 Rebels scratched in the scorebook.
North Duplin (6-9 overall, 2-1 Carolina) improved to 4-1 at home this season and claimed its seventh consecutive win over the Spartans. Union (0-14) dropped to 0-3 in league matters this season.
The Rebels travel to Rosewood on Friday.
