Sports

East Gaston takes two from Mustangs

TERRANCE THOMAS, LTN Sports Writer

Feb. 13, 2002 - MCADENVILLE — With a chance to clinch a playoff bid, East Lincoln boys team traveled to East Gaston Tuesday.

With a win and a South Point loss, the Mustangs would be in.

Access was denied.

East Gaston outscored the Mustangs 20-5 in the first quarter and never looked back as the Warriors bounced East Lincoln 65-46.

The Mustangs failed again to hit enough their outside jumpers and 3’s and couldn’t put enough baskets together to make a serious run.

“In our last few games, our weakness has been exposed,” said East Lincoln coach Neil Hodges. “Our inability to hit the outside shots (is hurting us). Teams are cutting off the middle inside.

 “The first time around (in the conference play) they played us man-to-man and (we did well),” he added. “The second time around, they’ve played zone.”

With the loss, East Lincoln will host South Point Friday in what should be a crucial game for both teams. The winner will get the fourth and final playoff bid from the Big South 3A Conference.

When East Gaston came to East Lincoln earlier in the season, the Mustangs bottled up the Warriors’ 6’-9” center Tyler Berg and held him to 10 points. In that game, the Mustangs had a chance to tie the game in thefinal seconds but couldn’t get it done.

Berg had a couple of dunks in the first quarter to lead the warriors to a big 15-point lead.

After that poor first quarter, the Mustangs couldn’t get any closer than 11 points.

The Mustangs outscored East Gaston 12-10 in the second quarter.

 Late in that period with the score 30-11, they ran off six straight points and then got the first basket in the third quarter to make it 31-20.

 But East Gaston pulled away with an 11-5 run to finish the quarter up 44-24.

East Lincoln couldn’t get much closer in the fourth quarter.

Berg finished with 16 points. Point guard Jason Sumpter, who burned East Lincoln the last time, led his team with 17.

No one for the Mustangs got into double figures. Tripp Miller led the way with nine, Corey Howard had eight, Jerel Wingate chipped in with seven.

Lady Mustangs fall 55-49

East Lincoln closed within three points late in the game but the Lady Warriors held on to win 55-49.

East Lincoln played perhaps their best offensive game in a while. Three players were in double figures — Tiffany Finandis (16), Sara Fleming (11) and Shanna Rendleman (10).

The Lady Mustangs trailed by 12 at halftime but made a run to make it close.

© 2001 Lincoln Times-News  

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