Game Report on East Forsyth-WS Reagan Boys Basketball:Shemar Watkins makes like Shemar Moore and the S.W.A.T. team and his 14 jump starts EF Eagles(19-5)

EAST FORSYTH - 11-16-13-15 -- 55
REAGAN -       13-14- 6-13 -- 46

EAST FORSYTH (19-5) Shemar Watkins 14, Nichols 8, Hairston 8, Samuels 8, Mahaffey 6, Brintley 4, AJ Hall 3, Wiley 2, Jones 2.

REAGAN (8-17) Darren Crump 15, Jalen Deatherage 13, Hanna 9, Pascual 4, Grant 3, Travatella 2.

East Forsyth survived a determined effort from Reagan to advance to the Central Piedmont 4A Conference tournament finals with tight 55-46 victory at RJ Reynolds HS Tuesday night. The Eagles, now 19-5 overall, will play the winner of the other CPC semifinal game tomorrow night (Reynolds-Davie County) before advancing to the NC 4A state playoffs next week as regular season CPC champions.

It wasn’t easy for East against a Raiders team it had beaten by 33 & 23 points respectively earlier in the year. Neither team led by more than three points in a sluggish first half that ended tied at 27. The Eagles’ defensive pace picked up at the start of the third quarter, holding Reagan scoreless for the first five minutes while opening up its largest lead of the game (37-29) until the game’s final score.

The Raiders closed the gap to 49-44 with 2:30 remaining, but East point guard Jimmy Nichols found Shemar Watkins for layups on consecutive possessions inside the two-minute mark, then hit two free throws with 41 seconds left to extend the Eagles’ lead to the final nine-point margin. Nichols led the winners’ second-half defensive effort & adding five assists & three steals to his eight points for the game.

Watkins led another balanced East Forsyth scoring ledger with 14 points while the Raiders’ Darren Crump led all scorers with 15. Jalen Deatherage added 13 points & six rebounds for Reagan, which finished 8-17 on the season.

Courtesy of East Forsyth assistant coach Bill Armour