RJ Reynolds 66, East Forsyth 59
East Forsyth 11-11-16-21 -- 59 RJ Reynolds. 15-16-13-22 -- 66
EAST FORSYTH (15-9) Matt Rivers 15, Khaliq McCummings 14, Brintley 9, Nichols 8, Lyles 7, Jackson 6
RJ REYNOLDS (18-6) Tyriek Leach 20, Mysta Goodloe 13, Tobias Johnson 12, Caden Davis 11, Ingram 9, Murphy 1
East Forsyth never led and never quit but came up short in its Central Piedmont 4A Conference semifinal with second-seeded RJ Reynolds, losing 66-59 to the Demons in tournament action Wednesday night at Davie County High School.
RJR, which lost 72-62 to East last Friday night, advances to play the winner of the second semifinal game between top-seeded Davie County and West Forsyth tomorrow night. The CPC championship games for both boys and girls will be Friday night at Davie County HS.
RJR scored the first five points of the game and led by as many as nine (15-6) in the first quarter but the Eagles cut the Demons’ lead to one (15-14) early in the second quarter.
Reynolds stretched it’s lead to as many as 14 in the second half (56-42) with four minutes left behind the play of Tyriek Leach, the game’s leading scorer with 20. But the Eagles continued to chip away at the deficit with three-pointers on consecutive possessions by Khaliq McCummings, Ty Lyles and Jimmy Nichols to trail by two at 59-57 with 42 seconds remaining.
But the winner made 8-10 free throws down the stretch and East failed to convert on their last three possessions to seal the win for the Demons, now 19-6 entering the CPC Finals on Friday night. East Forsyth closes its regular season at 15-9 and now waits to see if it’s selected for the NC 4A state tournament, beginning next Tuesday.
Mysta Goodloe joined Leach in the balanced RJR scoring effort with 13 points while Tobias Johnson and Caden Davis added 12 and 11 respectively and grabbed game-high eight rebounds each. Matt Rivers led with 15 points and six rebounds while McCummings added 14. East’s effort was hampered by missing ten of its 18 free throws for the game while RJR was 18 of 24 from the line.
Courtesy of East Forsyth assistant coach Bill Armour