Sampson Middle continues to keep its basketball streak rolling, showing another county rival team up on Thursday to improve to 6-0. This time they took down the Union Spartans, thanks to a stellar defensive in a 39-20 victory.
“My team is getting better each game. Everything we want to accomplish is built around our defense and we did a nice job keeping Union in front of us. They had to earn every bucket,” said Sampson Middle head coach Ron Davis.
Their defense set the tone and pace for this game from the opening tip off. Getting control of this match up in the first quarter Sampson held a small lead 11-8.
The second quarter is when they really blew this game wide open and never had to look back. Having their most efficient quarter of the night offensive in the second they scored 13. Even more impressive than that was their second quarter defense where they held Union Middle completely scoreless.
This brought the first half action to a close Sampson Middle leading it 24-8.
Union managed to recover a little coming out of the break, outplaying Sampson Middle completely in the third. The young Spartans dropped nine to close out the quarter while holding their opposition to just seven. This didn’t cut into the deficit much as they still trailed 31-17.
Sampson cracked down on their defense again in the fourth quarter to ensure the double-digit win. Scoring eight and allowing Union Middle to only score three, they clinched the 19-point win.
Scoring came from all over the place for Sampson Middle, but the main driving forces were Nick Smith with seven points, along with Rayshawn Williams and Trace Hall, who each had six.
“I had 13 players score so that is always a plus and fun to watch my seventh graders get more comfortable on the floor. We are 6-0 now but this team is not content,” said Davis. “They want to be the best.”