Anastasia McDonald scores for the Triton girls.
(Dunn Area Sports Photo/John Lucas)

Triton dropped a pair of varsity basketball games against visiting Fuquay-Varina on Friday.

Triton struggled offensively in a 41-25 loss to Fuquay-Varina in the girls game.

“Just not our night,” said Triton girls coach Wendy Simmons. “Nothing fell. I think a couple of times we may have taken a bad shot, but overall, it’s the shots we’ve been taking. Anastasia (McDonald) had nine steals and I think we had 24 steals total. You’re supposed to capitalize on that and we just didn’t.”

Junior Anastasia McDonald had 11 points, including 5-of-6 (83.3 percent) free throw shooting, and nine steals to lead the Hawks (4-4).

Zoie Starling had six points. Kaila Cooney had four points. Abby Hood had two points, eight rebounds and six steals. Tristan Ennis, playing for the first time since suffering an ankle injury in the Hawks season opener on Nov. 18, had two points.

Junior Kait Ryan and senior Teaisha Gray had eight points apiece to lead the Bengals (3-8).

Triton shot a dismal 8-for-44 (18 percent) from the field and did not put its first points on the board until a McDonald basket with 6:45 left in the second quarter.

Fuquay outscored Triton in all four quarters: 8-0 in the first quarter, 8-4 in the second, 9-7 in the third and 16-14 in the fourth.

A third-quarter surge propelled Fuquay-Varina to a 55-45 win in the boys game.

“Our goal is to give up less than 10 a quarter,” said Triton boys coach T.J. Morrison. “Second quarter we gave up nine. Fourth quarter, four. That’s pretty good. But third quarter, it was 25. That’s awful. That’s not competing. That’s not wanting it. They wanted it more than we did and we’ve just got to be better than that. We can’t have lapses and decide to play defense when we want to. We’ve got to do it all the time. And that third quarter was awful. We’ll hopefully learn from it. There’s a lot of basketball left to play.”

Junior Ladrabious Eason had 11 points and nine rebounds and senior Keionta Burnett had 10 points to lead the Hawks (4-4).

Josiah Lett had nine points, 14 rebounds and three blocks. Travion Sanders had eight points. Jamari Amerson had three points. Myshon Smith and Dalen Thompson had two points apiece.

Senior Wol Yak had 25 points and junior Ryan Maslow had 15 points to pace the Bengals (3-8).

The teams played dead even in the first half, with the game tied 26-26 at halftime.

With Triton holding a 30-28 lead early in the third quarter, Maslow scored to start Fuquay on a 21-4 run to take the lead for good.

Triton picked up its defense in the fourth quarter, holding Fuquay to just four points, but could not take advantage on offense, scoring just seven points in the period.

Triton’s boys will meet C.B. Aycock in the first round of the South Johnston Holiday Tournament at South Johnston High School on Dec. 27. The winner and loser meet the winner and loser, respectively, of Princeton vs South Johnston on Dec. 28.

“We’d better step up, because regardless of what happens, we’ll have two tough games,” Morrison said. “Aycock defends well. Obviously, South is having a great year. Princeton is a great, athletic team. I saw them play last night and they’ve got some scorers. We’ll have to bring it. It’s going to be two tough games, regardless of the teams that we play. Hopefully we’ll execute and not be complacent. Hopefully this loss was a teaching moment and we’ll have an epiphany that we’ve got to work a little bit harder and do a little bit better.”

Triton’s girls are not in action again until the Hawks host Middle Creek on Jan. 3.

“We’ll just keep working hard at practice and make sure everybody knows their role,” Simmons said.

Abby Hood gets a basket for the Lady Hawks against Fuquay-Varina.
(Dunn Area Sports Photo/John Lucas)

Zoie Starling shoots a 3-pointer for the Triton girls.
(Dunn Area Sports Photo/John Lucas)

Tristan Ennis scores for the Triton girls.
(Dunn Area Sports Photo/John Lucas)

Josiah Lett scores for Triton’s boys on Friday night.
(Dunn Area Sports Photo/John Lucas)

Keionta Burnett gets a basket for the Triton boys.
(Dunn Area Sports Photo/John Lucas)

Dalen Thompson drops a jumper for the Hawks.
(Dunn Area Sports Photo/John Lucas)

Travion Sanders finishes at the offensive end for the host Hawks.
(Dunn Area Sports Photo/John Lucas)