Greensboro Day claimed an impressive road win in front of a rowdy rival crowd.
High Point, North Carolina- Last night Greensboro Day went on the road in a hostile environment, at conference rival High Point Christian and came away with a crucial win. It was back and forth for four quarters, each squad exchanging blows, Greensboro Day was pushed but never gave up the lead.
Standouts –
Carson McCorkle (16 pts)- the UVA commit and top ranked sophomore in the state continues to close out games for the Bengals.
McCorkle wants the ball with everything on the line. It wasn't his most explosive performance, but McCorkle came up big from behind the arc to keep the Cougars at bay. You will be hard pressed to find a more polished scorer in the 2021 class.
Cam Hayes (12 pts) The floor general for this group gets better with every rep, it was a slow first half but Hayes came out noticeably more aggressive in the second half of this contest. Hayes showed the three level scoring ability, and also controlled the pace for the Bengals offense.
Hayes is still learning this system but he's at a point where he can make life easier for the scorers around him. Hayes also looked more comfortable defensively on rotations, his length caused problems at times, for the smaller backcourt of HPCA.
Noah Dunn (12 pts) Dunn came off the bench and changed the momentum of this game with a huge and one, and a deep three late. Both buckets came in crucial moments, the Cougars cut the lead to with in four at one point, Dunn's efforts never allowed them over the hump.
In my opinion the Bengals don't walk out of HPCA with a win. Dunn has battled through an earlier injury and continues to provided a boost to GDS.
Landon Sutton (16 pts) -Coming In we knew the Bengals would key in on Sutton, he's been the top scoring threat all year for HPCA, Sutton also knew he'd be task with matching up with McCorkle. This battle of sharpshooters was exciting to watch, Sutton more than held his own, he gave the student section a show. Sutton can create for himself off the dribble, or score off ball beside point guard KJ Garrett.
Sutton absolutely left it all on the floor, he causes serious problems coming off of screens, Sutton doesn't need much space to get a shot off. Sutton found cracks in the Bengals defense and made them pay, he had this group within striking distance.
Zach Shumate ( 14 pts) – played exceptional against a deep front court for GDS, Shumate battled against a unit and came away with a big performance. Shumate worked to control the glass for the guard dominated Cougars.
When Schumate left the contest there was a glaring advantage on the glass in the Bengals favor. Shumate got things started with his hot shooting, Shumate spaces the floor and opens a lot of things up in the lane, later Shumate went to work on the block, he finished strong through contact and proved to be a reliable post option for this offense.
Brycen Thomas (11 pts) Like Dunn Thomas really stepped up in his role and provided a spark for his side, Thomas never looked timid and seemed determined to leave an impact on this game.
Thomas proved to be a streaky shooter, he knocked down the long ball in rhythm and with confidence. Thomas has nice burst and a quick first step, he in the lane and converted on some creative finisher at the rack.
Post Game Comments
“The fans and the student section brought us a lot of energy and produced energy for us as players, it made me play harder in the post and everywhere to give them a show.” Zach Shumate said.
' A physical game is always what I like, I feel like I play very physical when I'm on the court and I just give it my all. I've also been working on my jump shot here lately and, whenever I see an opening I'm going to let it fly and hope it goes in.”
' That's one of the best crowds we've had in a long time and that I've played in front of. I mean we had people that hadn't been to a game in two or three years that came to watch us play tonight and I think we gave them a show. We stayed in the game as long as we could and gave them a run.” Landon Sutton Said.
“I think the crowds will keep getting bigger and bigger and bigger once they see more hype around us, we have some talented players and hopefully, we’ll make a state championship run and people will come out to see us. “
“I know I have to step my game up playing against him, (Carson McCorkle), he’s a good player, and a really good scorer, he’s committed to Virginia so that just makes it even better to play against him. It can help gain confidence playing against a real good player and playing really well against them.”
” This is a tough environment and High Point Christian always does a good job of getting in our heads and things like that, but I think we did a great job of staying compsed and continued to play hard. They made their runs but we also made our runs and I think we did a good job of that late in the game. We didn’t commit many turnovers and we played pretty solid defense.” Carson McCorkle said.
“We’re focusing on states a little more now but we still have some big games left in the regular season, everyday we’ll continue to work and improve and things like that in practice and in games.”