Greensboro Day Girls Dominate High Point Christian
The Greensboro Day School girls came out ready to play at Greensboro Day’s Dillard Gym on Friday night. They played 32 minutes of dominating basketball en-route to a 61-24 victory over their conference rivals the Cougars of High Point Christian Academy. The Bengals were led in scoring by Gloria Smith-Bunch who scored 16 points with 14 coming in the first half. Chloe Brewington chipped in eight points for the Bengals.
High Point Christian Academy trailed 16-2 at the end of the first quarter, 37-9 at halftime, and 52-13 after 24 minutes of play before finally losing by a total of 37 points. The Lady Cougars have yet to get a win on the season, falling to 0-12 overall and 0-5 in conference play. Their leading scorer was Maggie Williams who scored 9 points.
On a side note, the Lady Bengals, who improved to (14-12/4-1) with the overpowering performance tonight, put in a few eighth-graders at the end of the game. One of those eighth-graders was Madison Howard who contributed seven points for the Varsity team Friday night in a Conference matchup.
High Point Christian Scoring:
Maggie Williams- 9 pts
Dakota Truhe- 8 pts
Ally Powell- 4 pts
Grace Withrow- 2 pts
Riley Barrett 1pt
Greensboro Day Scoring:
Gloria Smith-Bunch- 16pts
Chloe Brewington- 8pts
Lauren Whitley- 7pts
Mahlon Brady- 7pts
Madison Howard- 7pts
Maddy Murdock- 6pts
Ellie Baldwin- 4pts
Kassidy Crosby- 2pts
Jalen Seegars Hits “The Bucket” in OT for HP Christian Victory
If you have been following private-school basketball in the triad this season, you are already aware of the one-point win that the Greensboro Day Bengals pulled off over High Point Christian Academy Cougars in the Alumni Gym at Guilford College earlier in the season. If you didn’t see it, you missed a great game! Friday night’s matchup between the two schools was a sell-out on Thursday. Would the game on Friday night be as close as the one we saw earlier this season, or would one of the teams come out and level their fierce rivals?
The contest proved to be worthy of a sell-out: extremely physical and down to a last-second shot.
The Cougars started the game hitting on all cylinders. Edrice “Bam” Adebayo scored the opening basket, quickly added another, and Michal Seals hit a three-pointer to give the Cougars an early 7-0 lead. The Bengals were shut down offensively by a very aggressive Cougar defense until Travon Mayo converted an old-fashioned three-point play with 5:10 to go in the first quarter. The first quarter ended with High Point Christian leading by a score of 14-9.
In the second quarter, the Bengals finally began to click, and within the first minute and a half, they had tied the score at 14. The two teams battled fiercely. They looked to be truly rolling by the time the first three minutes were gone in the second, with the Cougars leading for nearly the entire quarter. The exception was when Greensboro Day tied the game at 14 with 5:43 to go in the second quarter, and at 24 on a Jordan Perkins jumper with 41 seconds remaining in the first half. Perkins made things look as though the two teams were going to finish the first half tied, an extraordinary effort from Seals gave H.P. Christian the lead as he made a basket that fell in at the buzzer.
Adebayo had 15 points in the first meeting of the year, and felt as though he needed to contribute more if his team was going to be victorious on Friday night. But that didn’t happen.
“I came out slow last time (we played), and I felt like I gave us the loss,” Adebayo said. “Therefore I had to come out with more intensity and be me.”
The Cougars didn’t involve Adebayo in any plays within ten feet of the basket in the first half, after the first five minutes of the game, mainly due to the double-team defense being played by the Bengals. In the second half, however, Adebayo proved why he is one of the top recruits in the country and broke through the double-teaming to score nine of his 15 points after the halftime break.
The third quarter started and the Bengals struck first. They tied the score at 26 at the 7:26 mark, and on the next possession the Cougars regained the lead. Once again, the two teams traded shots, and once again it was the Cougars who hit the last basket of the quarter to regain the lead 35-33. It was apparent that this was going to be another close game.
Greensboro Day head coach Freddy Johnson believed his team outperformed its opponents after the first quarter.
“We outplayed them the last three quarters,” Johnson said.
High Point Christian, however, wasn’t ready to let their rivals take another win from them.
The fourth quarter was a complete dog-fight. Both teams were determined to win, apparent by the look in their eyes. Dillard Gym was filled to capacity, and the capacity crowd wasn’t going to leave without being entertained.
The final quarter saw four lead changes and two ties. At the end of the quarter, with 21.6 seconds remaining, down by two points, Johnson called a timeout to draw up what he hoped would be the final play.
“We called a timeout to get the ball to John (Newman) and we did exactly what we drew up during that timeout,” Johnson said of the execution of their final possession of the game.
Once again, sophomore John Newman gave his Bengals the lead with seconds remaining in the game. This time, there were 4.6 seconds remaining — plenty of time to get the ball in bounds, down the court, and get off a shot before the buzzer sounded, and that’s exactly what High Point Christian did. The Cougars got the ball in the hands of their star, Adebayo, for the final play of the game.
JP Moorman fouled Adebayo with .4 seconds left just past the free throw line, as he attempted to lay in the winning basket. Adebayo was on the line, with the game in his hands. His team needed both free throws to win, and he got only one.
The Bengals had a second chance to win the game as Adebayo’s second free throw attempt hit the rim and fell into the Bengals hands. Adebayo tied the game but couldn’t win it in regulation. The score was knotted at 46, and headed to overtime.
Overtime was much like the final quarter of regulation. Only three baskets were made during the deciding final four minutes. Adebayo made a lay-in only 11 seconds in. Neither team scored again until the Bengals’ Solomon Smith scored the game-tying basket, a ten foot jumper with 6’ 10” Adebayo in his face, and seven seconds left in OT. The Cougars once again had the time to get the ball in bounds, down court, and get off a shot. This time Cougars coach Brandon Clifford opted to put the ball in the hands of Jalen Seegars, a senior who played at Page High School in Greensboro last season. Seegars scored the game winning basket for the Cougars with less than 1 second remaining.
Clifford praised his players in post-game interviews.
“I’m really proud of our guys for how they stepped up, making plays down the stretch to get the job done,” Clifford said. “We came out with a lot of energy and effort and that helped us, even when we weren’t making shots.”
“Nobody has seen the real Jalen Seegars all year. He rolled his ankle the first week of the season and it’s been bothering him the whole time. He’s tough enough that he doesn’t show it, but it’s really hampered him. I made a decision to ride with him tonight late. I had a feeling he was going to make a play, I just didn’t know when it was going to be. Fortunately for me, it was at the last second to win the game,” Clifford said of the senior.
A cool Seegars was collected after the win.
“I knew we had to get a shot off quick,” he said. “I knew we had about five seconds left. I knew I was either going to get the foul or the bucket.”
Seegars drained the shot and his team left the Greensboro Day campus victorious because of “The Bucket.”
Greensboro Day School falls to 24-4 overall and 4-1 in the Conference with the loss and the Cougars of High Point Christian are now 19-4 on the season overall with a 4-1 Conference record. Both teams play Conference games next week.
High Point Christian Scoring:
Edrice “Bam” Adebayo- 15pts
Jalen Seegars- 14pts
Michal Seals- 10 pts
Ty Graves- 7pts
Tyren Melton- 4pts
Reece Bogan- 1pt
Greensboro Day Scoring:
John Newman- 15pts
Will Dillard- 7pts
Solomon Smith- 6pts
JP Moorman- 6pts
Travon Mayo- 5pts
Pierce Landry- 3pts
Alex Michael- 1pt