The Hobbton Wildcat men hit the court ready to play Friday night. Although they lost the game, they put up a good battle. The final was 59-49; however, the game was closer than the score indicates.

The Wildcats jumped out to an early lead and held on until midway the second quarter before Midway caught up. The score after 1 quarter was 14-11, Hobbton. Midway got their game together and began to close the margin, finally overtaking the Wildcats. The half time score was 27-22, Midway.

Hobbton held onto the game, never letting the margin get greater than 10 until the 4th quarter when Midway got 13-point lead at one time before the Wildcats cut it back to 8 or 10. After 3 quarters, Midway held an 8 point lead at 40-32. Even though the Raiders had the lead, both teams were trading baskets on each possession.

Raider coach Matthew Creech said, “I thought it was 32 minutes of scrappy, intense, yet ugly basketball. I think both teams had 15-20 possessions they would love to get back and probably changes the outcome of the game for both teams. We were fortunate to get and make plays here and there to pull away. I thought Ayden Cannady, our point guard, just created things on both ends of the court to help us to make those game changing plays throughout.

“Dariuss (Perez) on the offensive end did a lot of good things for us, as well. I thought we did a great job of forcing turnovers; but, we’ve got to convert more frequently than we did tonight. I think we left at least 15 to 20 points out in the transitions. We start conference play next week and that’s something we definitely need to address.”

Alphonso Hooper, Hobbton’s coach said, “We spent the last 2 days working on a game plan for Midway. I think our zone was working some. We switched from a 2-3 zone to a 1-3-1 zone. We jumped out on them and made a run and then they made a run. Once again, we just made too many turnovers. Mentally, we’ve just got to be more in the ballgame as far as not making turnovers. Hats off to Midway. They play hard. We just have to go back to the drawing board. We went 3-4 in non–conference play and I’m please with that. We start conference next week. We just have to get better at the little things right now; playing together, attacking the basket.

“We got in the bonus early and we just quit attacking the basket. We started settling for jump shots. Midway did a good job of being patient and that’s where we have to get to. Midway is one of the top 2–A teams in the state and we competed with them until they made that run and we just couldn’t recover.”

Midway had a balanced scoring attack with 4 players in double figures. Ayden Cannady had 11, Dariuss Perez and 15, Paris Smith had 11 and Shyheim Small had 12.

For the Wildcats, Hunter Britt had 15 points, Omar Farrior had 10 and Jonathan Wright had 14.

By David Johnson

Sports Writer

Dariuss Perez drives over Nicholas Bryant (23) and Hunter Britt for 2 of his 15 points
https://www.clintonnc.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/web1_Darius-Perez.jpgDariuss Perez drives over Nicholas Bryant (23) and Hunter Britt for 2 of his 15 points