South boys oust Chapel Hill in opening round of 3-A playoffs

by John Lucas | Feb 27, 2019 | South Johnston

Thomas Dees makes a steal for South Johnston on Tuesday night.
(Dunn Area Sports Photo/John Lucas)

South Johnston, seeded No. 11 in the East bracket, survived a third-quarter rally by visiting No. 22 Chapel Hill and pulled away in the fourth to take a 61-46 win to open the NCHSAA 3-A varsity boys basketball playoffs Tuesday night.

“We’ve done that all year long a couple of times,” said South Johnston coach Brody Massengill. “We go dry for a little bit and then we make a lot in a row. But all year, our defense has bailed us out of those times when we couldn’t make shots and that’s what happened again.

“Although we were missing shots, we were getting stops on the other end. In our gym, we shoot with a lot of confidence. We knew if we kept shooting, it was going to start falling. That is a scrappy group. They’re tough. They played in a hard conference and you could tell they were battle tested. Defense was what won that game. I know we scored 60 points, but we made it tough on them a lot of the times down the floor.”

Junior C.J. Ray had 26 points, including perfect 10-for-10 shooting at the free throw line (all 10 in the fourth quarter), and senior Jacob Thornton had 20 points to pace the Trojans (24-3).

“(Thornton)’s one of the best shooters this gym’s ever seen,” Massengill said. “Last Wednesday, I challenged him at practice. The whole practice was dedicated to JByrd, because we’re not going to be successful if he’s only taking two or three shots a game. He missed some shots, he was probably 0-for-4 or -5 to start, but he never got told to stop shooting the ball. He’s put his time in and we know they’re going to fall eventually. Both of them hit big shots and C.J. hit his free throws at the end of the game, which is a big deal. Going 10-for-10 in the fourth quarter, that will win you a game.”

JaQuain Smith had 10 points, Thomas Dees had three points. Sam Webster and Clayton Blackman had one point apiece.

“JaQuain had a mishap here or there, but he had some good finishes around the rim,” Massengill said. “I thought Thomas did a good job being kind of a floor general out there. He was telling people where they needed to go and a key part of breaking their press.”

A pair of seniors led the Tigers (15-11), as 6-foot-10 big man David Elien had 15 points and Drew Gilleskie had 11 points.

South started the game shooting ice cold, but played solid defense as Chapel Hill took a 6-3 late. But South heated up in the final two minutes of the quarter, going on a 10-2 run to take a 13-8 lead at the end of the first quarter.

The Trojans led by as much as 15, at 27-12, in the second quarter before the Tigers rallied to cut it to 27-20 at halftime.

With South holding a 33-24 lead in the third, Chapel Hill scored six unanswered to cut the lead to just three. But South finished the third with a 6-2 run to lead 39-32 at the end of the quarter.

The Trojans controlled the fourth quarter, outscoring the Tigers 22-14 in the final frame to secure a trip to the second round.

South Johnston will travel to sixth-seeded Westover (20-6) for the second round of the state playoffs on Thursday night.

“I’ve seen them a little bit,” Massengill said. “We’ll do some studying between now and tomorrow at practice. I tell these guys all the time that I’m a firm believer that it’s more about what we do than what the other team does. So, we’ve just got to stay sharp, get some shots up, game plan a little bit and go at it again.”