Tobacco Road Basketball League thread

[JamesCTaylor-TRBL]

Wilmington Sea Dawgs 94 Cary Invasion 99

January 16, 2016-(Cary, NC): The Wilmington Sea Dawgs trekked up the interstate to the Cary Invasion’s house for the second of three games the teams will play this season. Briefly, it was an evenly matched contest, but the Invasion jumped out to an early lead and for the rest of the game the Sea Dawgs battled tirelessly to get the score back to even. And with a minute left it looked like they had done it, with overtime a real probability. But an errant foul with only seconds left sealed the Sea Dawgs fate, giving Cary the 99-94 win.

For Wilmington all their production came from seven players. Double-digit scorers were game high-point shooter Todd McLauren with 28, Levi Humphrey with 23, Addison Spruill with 16, and Marco Spears adding 10. Overall the team shot 35% from the floor and 48% from the line, handing the Sea Dawgs their lowest scoring performance of the season.

The story for Cary was all about rookie guards. Although the team’s scoring was more evenly-balanced, it was point guard JJ Barbee (17 points) and newly activated rookie guards Raheem Jallife (18 points) and Jeff Legree (15 points, 3 3’s) who contributed half of the Invasion’s scoring. Add to that the accuracy of team high-scorer, power forward Rodney Callwood, who showed he knew where the basket was with 24 points, 88% of them coming from the floor. Another contributing factor to Cary’s win was their increased aggressiveness under the basket, pressing down and grabbing 29 defensive rebounds.

Next up for the Sea Dawgs (8-2) is Huntersville (4-2) in a Sunday afternoon game, while the Invasion (7-3) will play next Saturday at home when they welcome the Auburn Pro-Elite for their second contest of the season. Wilmington and Cary will meet one more time during the regular season, on Saturday February 13th in Cary.