Central Stymies PECHS

Published 4:29 pm Thursday, January 10, 2013

VICTORIA – The gymnasium at Central of Lunenburg High School received a much needed renovation over the summer that included new bleachers, a refurbished floor and a paint job.

Fans attending the Chargers' home game against Prince Edward County got to see that paint dry in a 34-20 victory for the hosts over the Eagles on Wednesday night.

The Chargers, who add a twist of irony to their nickname, take their slow and deliberate style as a compliment.

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“We are definitely a defensive-minded team,” said Central head coach Scott Wilson, whose team ran a high 2-3 zone that proved difficult for PE to crack. “We try to dictate the pace [of the game] more with our defense than with our offense. The goal for us is to keep our opponent under 40 points, and we more than met our goal tonight.”

“We have to make our layups,” said PE head coach Latasha Garrett. “When we were able to score, we were able to get in our fullcourt press and force turnovers. We weren't able to do that enough tonight. Central is a type of team that you don't want to get behind, and that's just what we did.”

Very rarely is the first made shot in a basketball game worth a mention, but Pashion Banks' three-pointer 58 seconds into the contest changed the tenor of the game.

“When she hit that three-pointer, we knew that we were going to have to go to our high zone,” said Wilson.

It was PE's only three pointer on the night.

Central jumped out to an 11-5 lead at the end of the first quarter and held an 18-10 advantage at the break, before Prince Edward had moderate success turning up the heat in the third.

Banks scored six points in rapid succession to cut a 21-12 deficit with 3:12 left in the period to 21-18 on a short jumper with 2:44 remaining.

The Eagles, however, were unable to sustain the surge well enough to pull ahead.

After four quick Central points in the final minute pushed the Chargers' lead back to seven points, Lindsay LeSueur hit a floater with five seconds remaining to pull the Eagles to within five points at 25-20 going into the final period.

“That's where you start to think if we could get ahead of them and force them to play to our speed, we have a good shot at winning,” said Garrett. “We couldn't sustain our momentum. We've done it all season. Our intensity comes in spurts of three to four minutes at a time, but we can't sustain it. We've yet to put together a 32-minute game where we maintained a high level of intensity.

“It comes down to missing layups, and committing turnovers and fouls. Every time we could get close, we did that.”

Banks led PE with 11 points on the night, while Ranequah Smith led Central with 17.

Prince Edward will travel to Fuqua School on Saturday night for the second return game in the home-and-home series between the two Farmville schools.