Dukes routed in quarterfinals
Published 10:10 pm Thursday, February 16, 2017
Cumberland High School’s varsity boys basketball team saw its season come to an end Monday evening with a 76-49 loss to host Central Lunenburg High School in the Conference 42 tournament quarterfinals.
“We started off pretty good,” Dukes Head Coach Tyrone Mosby said. “We got up and down the floor and got a few steals and got a quick, 10-point lead towards the middle of the first quarter, and I don’t know, maybe we started to relax a little bit on offense … taking some bad shots, and that transferred over to our defense, and we stopped getting stops and stopped getting steals and started giving up layups and fouls.”
Fifth-seeded Cumberland led 18-15 after the first period, but the No. 4 Chargers claimed a lead of 36-31 at halftime, 53-44 after the third quarter and they outscored the Dukes 23-5 in the fourth.
Senior guard James Booker led Cumberland with 16 points, scoring 14 of them in the first half. Senior guard De’Shaun Liggins had 12 points, 10 of which came in the second half.
Mosby cited overconfidence and not having practice the day before the game as factors contributing to why his team dropped to 2-1 against Central this season.
The Dukes finished the season with a 4-18 record, and Mosby said the 2016-17 campaign was a bit disappointing.
“Being that I had some returning seniors coming back this year, I felt that we should have been in a better position to win quite a few more games than what we did,” he said. “My expectation is always high, so I would definitely say it was a disappointing season for me.”
He said he plans to work with his young players in the offseason.