Trinity holds off Jordan-Matthews in 7th place contest at Courier-Tribune Tournament

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ASHEBORO — The Jordan-Matthews boys hoops team battled tight with Eastern Randolph Monday afternoon, but a late surge at the end sealed a third-straight loss for the Jets.

The Jets dropped the contest — the seventh-place game in the 29th annual The Courier-Tribune Christmas Invitational Tournament — 67-57, losing a game that featured 11 lead changes and 10 ties. It was the Wildcats’ 6-0 surge at the start of the fourth quarter that sealed the game’s fate at Asheboro High School.

J-M finished the three-day event 0-3 for just the second time in 27 tournament appearances. The only other year Jordan-Matthews failed to win at least one tourney game was 2016.

Interim Jets’ coach Reggie Carter said his team’s lack of communication on the floor at times proved costly.

“We had some mental lapses on the defensive end that left the middle open, while there were times we weren’t giving help-side assistance,” Carter said. “We need to do better matching up on every possession and not lose track of who we are guarding. Eastern Randolph killed us on the offensive boards, and their big guys had a soft touch around the basket to put in some second-chance opportunities. Even though free throws kept us close down the stretch, we just couldn’t make shots in the fourth quarter.”

Lanice Hedgepeth notched a game-high 19 points and Camden Fuquay added 14 for J-M (4-8 overall), which shot 27 percent (16-of-59) from the floor while turning the ball over 15 times.

Osiris Ross led the Wildcats (4-7 overall) with 17 points and Landon Loflin finished with 12, while Jah’Morie Wilson and Cade Snotherly both chipped in nine. Eastern Randolph connected on 48 percent (24-of-50) of its field goal attempts and held a 35-28 advantage in rebounding while committing 14 turnovers.

“I thought our three big guys (Loflin, Wilson and Delonte Glover) were a factor around the boards on both ends of the court, while we were a lot more aggressive attacking the basket in the second half,” said Wildcats’ coach LaShawn Robinson. “I was pleased how we stayed in the game mentally and showed a lot of grittiness to hold on at the end when J-M made a run at us, and we did a good job making our free throws when we needed them.”

After Jordan-Matthews built a 6-2 advantage three minutes into the contest, the Wildcats pulled even on three occasions in the opening period before Fuquay’s jumper off the left baseline with 1:07 to go in the stanza put J-M up 13-11 at the conclusion of the first frame.

Following Wilson’s layup with 5:53 left in the second quarter that gave Eastern Randolph its first lead at 17-15, the Jets regained the advantage 21 seconds later on Hedgepeth’s conventional three-point play and didn’t trail again until a Ross lane jumper with 1:07 remaining before halftime gave the Wildcats a 30-29 lead. But the Jets would head into intermission tied at 30-all when Fuquay sank one-of-two foul shots with 20.0 seconds to go in the period.

Back-to-back layups by Snotherly and Ross to begin the third quarter then gave Eastern Randolph a four-point advantage which it maintained until Jordan-Matthews closed out the stanza with a 9-4 run that put J-M back on top 43-42 entering the final eight minutes.

But the Wildcats retook the lead for good at the start of the fourth period following a Ross lane jumper plus two free throws and a put-back off the right baseline by Loflin to forge a five-point advantage with 6:33 left on the clock.

The Jets twice trimmed the gap to one in the time remaining, the last instance at 53-52 following a pair of Timothy Eubanks charity tosses with 3:35 to play, prior to Eastern Randolph prior closing out the game with a 14-5 run fueled by baskets from Landon Collins, Wilson, Loflin and Carter Moore while converting six-of-eight attempts from the foul line.