RALEIGH — RALEIGH -- RALEIGH -- Garner passed one of its toughest tests of the basketball season Friday night, but rival Southeast Raleigh certainly didn't make it easy on the Trojans.
Senior forward Donald Johnson led the way with 21 points, and Gavin Wilson chipped in 20, leading Eddie Gray's club to a 62-58 win in Greater Neuse River 4-A play that kept Garner's unbeaten streak alive.
The Trojans improved to 11-0, 5-0 in conference play, while Southeast fell to 8-5 and 2-3 after having its five-game winning streak snapped.
"It's always quite a game when we come over here to Southeast Raleigh," Gray said. "It's a great atmosphere for high school basketball. We've had some barnburners. It doesn't really matter what the score is, it's always going to be nip and tuck until the last buzzer goes off."
Dominique Reed had a double-double of 12 rebounds and 12 blocked shots for the Trojans, while Deion Dorsey pulled down 20 rebounds.
Southeast lost despite placing four players in double-figures, as Tyler Griffis and Sameer Daniels had 13 points apiece, and Tristan Walker and David Washington added 10 points apiece.
"If everyone in the state of North Carolina would play like that, that's what high school basketball is about," Bulldogs coach John Baker III said. "That's exactly what it's made of. I mean a Friday night, packed gym, fans yelling, everybody hustling, two teams going at each other - that's the type of basketball I like to see."
Southeast looked poised to run away with the game early in the second quarter, going up by as much as 29-17 on Washington's layup with 6:44 left before the Trojans pulled to within 34-30 at the break.
The teams exchanged a pair of big runs in the third period. Garner went on a 17-0 spree, including a consecutive 3-pointer, an old-fashioned three-point play and a layup all from Johnson, and took a 47-36 lead on a Wilson 3-pointer to make it 47-36 with 3:09 left in the quarter.
But Southeast returned the favor with a 10-0 run, and trailed only 49-48 going into the final period.
Garner finally took the lead for good on a Wilson layup that made it 53-51 with 4:50 to go, but the Trojans couldn't break away.
Daniels hit a 3-pointer for Southeast to cut it to 61-58 with 25 seconds left before Johnson made the back end of a two-shot opportunity with 10 seconds left to seal the result for Garner.
