East Chapel Hill boys, Chapel Hill girls get rivalry wins in second meeting
At East Chapel Hill Friday night, the host Wildcats took the nightcap over rival Chapel Hill, 55-40 in the boys’ game, while the Tigers’ girls took the early contest by a score of 54-34.
Wildcats still undefeated
The East Chapel Hill boys (4-0) swept the series over Chapel Hill thanks to a game-high 30 points from Carter Collins, 19 of which came in the second half.
“A lot of Carter Collins in the second half,” said coach Ray Hartsfield on why his team pulled away after only leading by four at the break. “He just took the game over. He’s that kind of player, that kind of a talent.”
Chapel Hill came within a single possession late in the third quarter, but then Collins went off to extend his team’s lead. Collins opened the fourth quarter with five straight points to put the Wildcats ahead by double digits, and the Tigers were unable to get any closer.
Elijah Haynes led the Tigers (2-3) with 19 points. Haynes came out on fire, scoring his team’s first 11 points of the game. He cooled off some as the game wore on, and his teammates were unable to pick up the slack in scoring.
“(Elijah) can shoot it everywhere,” said Hartsfield. “We wanted him to shoot tough shots. We cooled him down a little bit as the game went on. We wanted to wear him down and push him a little further out and get him out of his range.”
Balanced scoring helps Tigers to win
The Chapel Hill girls swept their season series with rival East Chapel Hill with a 20-point win. Eight players scored for the Tigers, as they led wire-to-wire.
“I think it’s really important that we had that balanced scoring. It shows that they are being very unselfish. It’s hard to stop balanced scoring,” coach Sherry Norris said.
Ti’Mia Chaplin led the way with 15 points. Autumn West had 11, and Mariah Jacobs and Allyah Chaplin had nine apiece as Chapel Hill improves to 4-1.
East Chapel Hill drops to 2-2 on the year, with both loses coming against Chapel Hill. T.J. Johnson scored a team-high 14 points, while Ali Cyr-Scully had 12.
Trailing by nine at halftime, and as many as 12 in the third quarter, Johnson hit back-to-back 3s to cut the East Chapel Hill lead to six. Chapel Hill responded when Ti’Mia Chaplin scored on a put-back and a layup to get the Tigers lead back to 10.
“I thought it worked really well in the fourth quarter that we were able to pass the ball, and on the break get it to Ti’Mia and she was able to finish,” Norris said.
This story was originally published December 5, 2015 at 1:40 AM with the headline "East Chapel Hill boys, Chapel Hill girls get rivalry wins in second meeting."