Warriors advance to regional final with win over Eastern Alamance
MARK DOLEJS / Dispatch Staff
J.F. Webb Eastern Alamance in their Eastern Regional game Friday night.
J.F. Webb overcame a slow start again Friday and moved within one game of the 3-A state championship with a 65-56 win over Eastern Alamance.
The fourth-seeded Warriors (25-5) face No. 1 Rocky Mount (26-2) today in the Eastern Regional final at Fayetteville’s Crown Coliseum for the right to move on to next week's title game in Raleigh.
Like last week’s third-round win at Chapel Hill, Webb battled back from an early double-digit deficit. The Warriors trailed early, but seized the advantage in the third quarter, holding Eastern Alamance to six points.
“We’ve weathered different storms,” said Webb coach Leo Brunelli. “That’s part of why we played who we played. Our conference got us ready for this. Our showcase got us ready for this.”
Stefan Cates led Webb with 23 points on 7-of-9 shooting, including 2-of-2 from outside to go along with 13 rebounds. Isaiah Hicks was dominant in the paint, finishing with 13 points, 11 rebounds and 10 blocks.
Hicks brought the red-clad Webb faithful, who made the trip south in good numbers, to life in the second quarter with a two-hand snatch of an Eagle player’s shot in transition, pinning the ball on the bottom right corner of the backboard.
“Every time I think the young man has shown me everything, he goes up there and two-hand pins one,” said Brunelli. “I haven’t seen that yet. Maybe not that high.”
Mitron Terry was also in double figures for Webb with 15 points.
Eastern Alamance star point guard Lamont Robinson had 28 points on 11-of-33 shooting and was 1-of-9 from downtown.
Webb went down 25-14 early in the second quarter, but made up the difference with a 9-0 run before taking a 31-30 lead with 2:08 to play in the half.
A Robinson 3 with 20 seconds left gave Eastern a 34-33 halftime advantage.
The Eagles led 23-14 after the first.
Webb shot 43 percent from the field on the game to Eastern’s 29.4 percent.
“That’s been our knock, we don’t guard anyone,” said Brunelli. “I think we guarded some people tonight.”
Rocky Mount overcame a one-point halftime deficit Friday against West Craven pulling away for a 62-50 win to advance to the 3-A Eastern Regional final.
The top-seeded Gryphons led 45-39 entering the fourth quarter and withstood a late charge from the Eagles (25-5) that got the lead down to five points with about a minute to play.
Sophomore guard Broderick Caudle led Rocky Mount with 15 points on 3-for-7 shooting from 3-point range. Mason Hines and Michael Hines had 12 and 11 points respectively.
Rocky Mount scored 23 points off 23 turnovers from No. 3 West Craven.
The Gryphons feature three junior players 6-foot-5 or taller in Dante Battle (6-foot-5), Immanuel King (6-foot-6) and Jaquell Bryant (6-foot-7). Battle, the Big East player of the year, was the leader of that group Friday with seven points.
Contact the writer at kholtzman@hendersondispatch.com.