Sweet win over North Johnston for 'Dogs
By David Williams
NL Editor
Nothing is sweeter than beating your rival.
Princeton High School’s basketball team got to live that dream Friday night, taking down North Johnston 61-42 to move to 3-0 in league play. It was the first win over the Panthers in basketball in nearly two years.
Princeton (11-5 overall) jumped out early and led 33-13 by halftime, then cruised through the second half to defeat their county rivals. The Bulldogs did an outstanding job taking care of the ball, with only six turnovers before the starters went to the bench for the reserves to get in some work.
“It went the way we wanted,” said Princeton coach Jeff Davis. “I didn’t think we had any killer instinct, though. I would have liked to have seen us push it out more. We just couldn’t seem to shake them. We played really well. We didn’t turn the ball over, we shot it really well. We moved the ball and got shots in the open court.”
Most of those shots came from Ryan Daughtry, who poured in 30 points. The junior hit four 3-pointers, went 10-of-13 from the line, and even pulled down three rebounds. He had 20 of Princeton’s 33 points by halftime.
Adam Nethercutt added a pair of 3-pointers and had 10 points and three boards, while doing a solid defensive job. Daniel Gerrell had eight points and four boards, while Josh Barefoot had seven points and seven rebounds.
Will Gainey had but one point, but contributed immeasurably as the point guard, not allowing a turnover. Chris Hinton had three points and Travis Harper added one point.
The victory, combined with last Tuesday’s 50-49 win over North Duplin puts the Bulldogs one win away from an important mid-season goal – being undefeated in conference play when Princeton meets Ayden-Grifton on Jan. 23.
“We still have on more to play,” he said. “And it’s a big one - Rosewood. The environment when we play Rosewood and this crowd (North Johnston) is the two best environments we play in.”
Princeton remains tied for a share of the early lead in the league. To stay on top, Princeton will need more shooting performances like they had Friday night. The key was passing the ball, according to Coach Davis.
“We have not shot the ball well in a while, but we did tonight because we got open looks.” he said.
Another big key to the game was the defensive pressure Princeton put on Panthers’ scorer Willie Parker and t he early departure of the Panthers’ 6-7 shot blocker with foul trouble.
“Their big boy changed the game with his ability to shot block, but when he fouled out, we had a huge advantage inside,” Coach Davis said.
On Tuesday, North Duplin battled hard and long as Princeton used a late free-throw to get the lead and good defense at the final seconds to preserve it.
Gerrell led the scoring with 13 points, while Barefoot had 10 points and Daughtry had nine. Gainey and Nethercutt both had six points each.
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