Road warriors’ run comes to halt in third round

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PLYMOUTH — The road warriors tour by the Chatham Central boys’ basketball team came to an abrupt halt here Saturday night as the Bears were dealt a crushing 78-34 defeat at the hands of powerful Washington County in third round action of the NCHSAA 1A State Playoffs.

Chatham Central closed its Cinderella playoff run with a 15-10 mark while Washington County moved on to the East Regional semifinals with a gaudy 27-1 record.

Make no mistake about it, the Panthers were the better team, simple as that.

With that said, it was evident the Bears had little fuel left in the tank after logging more than 1,000 miles in just five days, and the athletic and fresh-legged Panthers took full advantage.

Washington County exploded for a 28-6 run in the opening quarter to turn the game into a blow-out after eight minutes of action.

To say the Panthers were on fire would be an understatement as the hosts drained a plethora of treys, including two by Quymel Chesson, who had 10 points in the stanza, another by De’Andre Downing, who had nine points, and the final by Cedez Norman, who closed with five points.

The second was not much better for the Bears, who were outscored 21-9 to fall behind 49-15 at the intermission. Michael Moore had four points for the locals in the second, but Washington County responded with five more treys, including a pair and 10 points from Omar Harris, two more from Chesson, and a final one by Kevon Burnett.

Carter Fuquay canned a trey in the third for Chatham Central and Jameious Degraffenreaidt added a trey but the locals were outscored 20-11 in the period to fall behind 69-26.

Downing had eight in the stanza for Washington County while Normand chipped in six, and Chesson four.

Phillip Gaines would collect six points for the Bears in the fourth but the Hurricanes went on to claim the easy 78-34 win.

Chatham Central failed to place a scorer in double figures as Carter Fuquay led the way with eight points while Moore and Gaines added six apiece.

The Washington County scoring attack was led by 20 from Chesson while Downing added 17, Norman 13 and Harris 10.