Spring Creek’s Brennan Chambers (5) dunks over Beddingfield’s Darrian Jones during first-quarter play Tuesday evening in ‘The Swamp.’ (Rudy Coggins|mountolivetribune.com)
Spring Creek’s Brennan Chambers (5) defends against Beddingfield’s Taevon Edwards. (Rudy Coggins|mountolivetribune.com)
SEVEN SPRINGS — Beddingfield seized control in the middle two quarters and Spring Creek never responded during its 72-51 loss Tuesday evening at “The Swamp.”
The Gators never countered the two gut-punching blows, and that disappointed first-year head coach Tray Harris.
“Defense and the lack of not being aggressive going to the rim,” Harris said. “Most of our success has been at the rim this season because our [overall] shooting percentage has been low.”
Spring Creek led 17-16 before Beddingfield converted a buzzer-beating off an offensive rebound as time expired. The Bruins wouldn’t relinquish, but extend, that one-point advantage over the next two periods.
Turnovers, lack of defensive transition and crashing the glass allowed the Bruins to outscore the Gators 33-17 in the second and third quarters combined.
“I think turnovers have been a big factor for us [all season],” Harris said. “We have had games where we have had a lot of turnovers, and lose by one or two points or so. Transition, we’re slow getting back [because] guys lose their thoughts.
“Second-chance rebounds, we’ve got to have more guys crashing [the glass]. That’s one of our problems we’ve been working on. We’ve had some success, but sometimes we get guys just ball watching.”
Spring Creek whittled away at the deficit on occasion throughout the second half, but couldn’t establish any momentum.
The Bruins (14-3 overall, 3-2 Neuse Six) easily fended off the challenges and claimed their fourth consecutive triumph over the Gators.
Kam McDaniels emerged as Spring Creek’s top scorer with 12 points. Brennan Chambers chipped in 11 points, while Jackson Rose knocked down nine. Nathan Jackson added eight points.
SC shot 7 of 14 at the free throw line.
The Gators (6-10, 0-4) seek their first league win of the season against North Johnston on Friday. The Panthers have won four straight in the series and 12 of 16 meetings overall since 2006.
“We’ve got to go ahead and hit everybody first,” Harris said. “We’ve got to stop taking the shots and hitting them first. Keep them out of the game, keep the refs out of the game and we win the game. [If we] keep everybody to below 30 points at halftime, we’ll have a successful night.”
