Cartersville Warriors cage Rome Rage, 103-79
June 21, 2009 - World Basketball Association (WBA)
Cartersville Warriors News Release
The Cartersville Warriors picked up their second straight World Basketball Association win Sunday afternoon at J.H. Morgan Gymnasium, steamrolling the winless Rome Rage, 103-79..
"Even though Rome's record is what it is (the Rage is now 0-6), there's a bit of a rivalry between our teams," said Cartersville head coach Cory Baldwin. "Rome is the closest team to us in the league and we made a trade with them for Jermaine Spivey (back on June 8), so there was so motivation there for us not to overlook them.
"We came out and got a lead early, but we relaxed and let them back in the game. However, we scored some buckets late in the first half and once we got to the second half, we played like we were supposed to."
Cartersville (7-3 overall, 5-3 WBA) jumped out to a 17-7 lead in the first 4:51 of the game behind strong post play from Darnell Cox. Cox scored 12 of his 14 first-half points in the opening 10 minutes and the Warriors held a pronounced advantage on the boards all game long.
"I definitely think our big guys came out motivated," said Baldwin. "They came out more focused and aggressive on the offensive glass than they were at Buford (last Friday). That's been a weak point in our play for most of the season, but today it was a strength."
The Warriors led 26-16 after one quarter and were up by 13 points before the Rage went on a 14-2 run to close to within 35-34 on a jumper by Tyrone Eboigbe - one of the two players Cartersville traded to Rome to get Spivey - with five minutes to go before halftime.
Rome got as close as one point two more times, at 37-36 and 43-41, before Cartersville scored the final five points of the first half to take a 48-41 advantage into the locker room at the break.
The Rage closed to within 50-46 in the first minute of the third quarter, but Cartersville took control of the game for good with a 13-0 outburst that saw the Warriors' lead swell to 63-46 with 4:47 remaining in the period. Cartersville's lead was 79-54 by the end of the quarter and the Warriors cruised to the win in the fourth quarter.
Cox led Cartersville with 20 points, five rebounds, three assists and two blocked shots. Andrew Jones had 18 and nine rebounds, Justin Billingslea had a double-double with 13, 11 rebounds and three assists, Chucky Frierson had 13 and four rebounds, Bobby Brown pitched in 11 with four rebounds and Spivey just missed a triple-double with nine points, eight assists and six rebounds.
Latece Williams paced Rome with 16 points and 10 rebounds. Shan Finley netted 15, Eboigbe had 10 and six rebounds and Nathan Charles - the other piece of the Spivey deal - had 10 points and four rebounds for the Rage in the loss.
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World Basketball Association Stories from June 21, 2009
- Cartersville Warriors cage Rome Rage, 103-79 - Cartersville Warriors
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