South Johnston’s varsity boys basketball team rallied late against visiting rival Triton, but the Hawks held on to edge the Trojans, 59-57, on Thursday night.

Triton boys assistant Jimmy Holbrook, who is also the junior varsity boys coach, had to fill in the head coaching role for most of the game after coach T.J. Morrison was ejected in the first quarter.

“We fought off some adversity in the first half,” Holbrook said. “Some things didn’t go quite our way. We came back together and got us a bit of a lead going into the half and had a little momentum. Second half, it felt like we were in control and they stepped it up a little bit and got some baskets. We tried to slow things down some and run some clock. Maybe shouldn’t have slowed them down quite as early. But Ahmad (Morris), a sophomore who didn’t play last year made a big free throw right there at the end.”

South boys coach Brody Massengill said the Trojans’ shooting was not consistent enough.

“It was kind of the same old tale of not being able to get anything to fall,” Massengill said. “I didn’t feel like we were not getting some of the shots we wanted. We just didn’t get them to go. I could not be more proud of this team, though, to fight and show what they did in those last three minutes. They never wavered. They always still believed. That’s half the battle.”

Senior Jalen Evans paced the Hawks (5-3) with 15 points, 10 rebounds and four assists.

“Jalen was big,” Holbrook said. “Especially in the second and third quarter. He made some really big plays for us.”

Nate McKoy had eight points. Sabine Wheeler and Quashaun Williams had seven points apiece. Will Heard and Ahmad Morris had five points each. Jaleel White, Romello Pegues, J.J. Cowan and Jakson Cullen had two points apiece.

Connor Lee had 17 points and senior Lucas Layman had 10 points to lead the Trojans.

“(Lee) has been averaging about 15 a game and that’s what he does,” Massengill said. “He scores. He’s aggressive all the time. Lucas Layman played his tail off those last five minutes.”

Cole Norris had nine points. Nick Jackson had eight points. Chase Norris had five points. Decarrus Poston had four points. Ryan Hudson and Kaleb Williams had two points each.

Late in the first quarter, Morrison objected to a block/charge call that went in the Trojans favor and was issued a technical foul because one of the officials believed he had used profanity, which also carries an automatic ejection under NCHSAA rules. Triton led 14-10 at the end of the period.

Triton took a 53-39 lead into the fourth quarter when South rallied with a 16-5 run to cut the lead to three.

But Morris made a key free throw in the late seconds to make it a two-score lead. Layman then scored to cut the lead to two, before time expired.

Triton won a 58-34 rout over South Johnston in the varsity girls game.

“Buzzer to buzzer, we wanted this to be a complete game,” said Triton girls coach Richard Rozier. “Second time around, we had some film on them, saw some things we could have done better and we took advantage of that. We really played a wire-to-wire complete game and that’s important.”

Freshman Nashara Watlington-McNeill had 22 points, sophomore JaNiah Smith had 12 points and senior Abby Hood had 10 points to lead the Hawks (5-3).

A’Shari Watlington had seven points, Unique Cooke had four points and Carleigh Hemby had three points.

Seniors Caroline Tucker and Dianna Boykin and sophomore Lannah Price had six points apiece to lead the Trojans (1-7).

Meagan Worley had four points. Madison Carter had three points. Laley Norman, Skykeria Sanders and Evelyn Murphy had two points apiece. Brooke Winborne had one point.

Triton outscored South 16-5 in the first quarter, 16-8 in the second and 21-10 in the third. South outscored Triton 11-5 in the fourth quarter.

Triton hosts All American 3-A/4-A Conference opponent Terry Sanford for makeup varsity games on Friday at 4:00 p.m. The games were postponed from last Friday due to a major water main break in Erwin causing the school to lose water. The junior varsity games were completed before the postponement.

South Johnston’s boys will travel to the University of Mount Olive on Tuesday for the FCA Winter Classic. The Trojans meet Wayne Country Day (10-2) in the first round. South’s girls are at home against Southern Lee on Tuesday.