Midway and Wallace-Rose Hill took to the hardwood on Tuesday night in a battle on the hardwood. Both teams entered the contest with sub-.500 records, but the Bulldogs certainly didn’t play like it. After a close contest in the first half, Wallace-Rose Hill turned to a relentless full court press smothered the Raiders offense as the Bulldogs took a high-scoring 96-84 victory.
Despite Midway’s final tally of 84 points, the Bulldogs defense created havoc all game long for the Raiders, particularly in the second half. Midcourt turnovers for Midway catapulted Wallace to easy layups on the other end. Frequently, when the Raiders did make it up court, Wallace-Rose Hill opted for a four versus five defense as a player sagged back near midcourt, awaiting an easy breakaway.
Right from the start, the Bulldogs displayed that they weren’t playing at the level their 5-6 record indicated. Their press proved monstrous early on as Midway struggled to bring the ball up court while Wallace opened up a quick 10-0 lead. The Raiders were down but, at least for now, weren’t out. Wallace-Rose Hill cooled throughout the remainder of the quarter while Midway found some production. By the end of quarter number one, the score stood at 18-11 .
Midway connected on a back immediately at the start of the second quarter to draw the Raiders back within 18-13. Chipping into the lead throughout the quarter was the story for Midway as the teams continued to duke it out. Slowly, the Bulldogs watched their lead dissipate, especially right before the buzzer when Bryson Core hit a three-pointer to make it 32-30 at the half.
For Midway, though, it was all downhill from there.
Right from the get-go in the third period, the Bulldogs returned to their high-pressure defense. It seamed nearly impossible for the Raiders to get anything going. From bringing the ball past half court to just simply stopping easy baskets for Wallace, nothing was going right as the Bulldogs hung more points in the third period than they had all of the first half. Midway finally got going offensively, but the damage had been done as they were outscored 35-18 and faced their largest deficit of the game, 67-48.
Impressively, the Raiders kept fighting and posted nearly 40 points themselves in the fourth quarter but the problem for Midway was that the Bulldogs also scored at a rapid pace. Unable to fully overcome the deficit – they got to within 78-73 – Midway would fall 96-84.
The Raiders had four players get into double-digits. Jamar Autry led the way with with 29 points, Core had 18 points, Dalton Cannady had 13 points and Jaden Covington had 10.
With the loss Midway is now 5-11 overall and 0-5 in the East Central Conference. The Raiders were immediately back in action on Wednesday as they hosted Neuse Charter in a non-conference game at Campbell University.