Game Report on East Forsyth-Westlake(Utah) Boys Basketball:Eagles fall in last game of East Coast Holiday road trip

Westlake 62, East Forsyth 56

EAST FORSYTH -     7-12-20-17--56
WESTLAKE.         21-16-12-13--62

EAST FORSYTH (6-2) – Connor Sparrow 11, Josh Mahaffey 11, Shemar Watkins 10, Brintley 8, Hairston 6, Nichols 5, Samuels 5

WESTLAKE (4-3) – Jared McGregor 18, Kakoa Baker 14, Cooper Mattson 10, Christian 8, Vanmonofrons 6,. White 2, Chappell 2, Paepke 2

East Forsyth fell prey to a hot-shooting start by Westlake (Utah) & never recovered enroute to a 62-56 loss at home in Kernersville Wednesday night. The visitors, playing their third game in three nights on their East Coast holiday road trip, made their first four three-point attempts & eight of their first ten shots from to open a 16-point lead (21-5) in the first six minutes. Their first turnover of the game also came more than seven minutes after the opening tip.

In the first half, Westlake missed only six of it’s 15 three-point attempts to stretch it’s halftime margin to 18 points at halftime (37-19), including 5-6 by Jared McGregor, who led all scorers with 18 points for the game. The Eagles, who lost their second close game this week after a 6-0 start, didn’t help their cause to dig out of their early deficit by missing 11 of the 18 first-half free throw attempts.

East turned up the defensive pressure in the second half & used it’s superior depth plus the fading energy of the visitors to steadily chop away at the lead, cutting the margin to five points twice in the final minute but no closer. Reserves A.J. Hall, Tanis Samuels & Savon Brintley led the comeback but Westlake made 5-8 free throws in the final 90 seconds to secure the win.

McGregor (18) led all scorers & teammate Kakoa Baker added 14 for Westlake while Josh Mahaffey & Connor Sparrow led the Eagles, now 6-2, with 11 each, while Shemar Watkins added 10. Sparrow also had a game high seven rebounds & Samuels added five boards & three steals.

East Forsyth is off for the holidays before playing Mount Airy in the first round of the Frank Spencer Holiday Classic next Tuesday at at 6 p.m. at the Lawrence Joel Memorial Coliseum in Winston-Salem.

Contact Coach Bill Armour