Middle School basketball has been in full swing this week with many, if not all, county middle schools getting in on the action.
Sampson Boys
For Sampson Middle, they earned a pair of win’s this week in boys’ basketball as the Dark Horses took wins over Hobbton and Roseboro-Salemburg. Most recently, Sampson bested the Wildcats on Thursday in a 39-17 in a game that would decide the frontrunner in the conference.
After a slow first quarter, the score was all tied up at 4-4. In the second quarter, though, Sampson’s defense took over as the Dark Horses outscored the Wildcats 12-0.
The second half was more of the same as Sampson held Hobbton to only 17 total points, making the final score 39-17. With the win, Sampson improves their record to 5-0 while the loss brings Hobbton to 2-1.
Sampson was led in scoring by Landen Pearson with 16. Jymick Sampson had a big game, especially on the boards, with nine points and 10 rebounds. The Wildcats leading scorer was Josiah McLauren with seven followed by John Wilkes with six.
Earlier in the week Sampson topped Roseboro-Salemburg on Monday, earning a 52-38 victory. In that game, the Leopards trailed by just two at halftime with the score settled on 20-18. After that, though, the Dark Horses seized control and ran away with the double-digit win.
The Horses were led by Landen Pearson with 19 points and 10 rebounds. He was followed by Zi McNeil and Aaron Matthis with eight points each.
Dwight Horne, head coach of the Dark Horses, said after the game, “This game was a battle from start to finish. Roseboro-Salemburg is big, physical, and athletic. They are well coached and gave us all we wanted.”
Midway Boys
The Raider boys went 1-1 this week, earning a win over Union on Monday but taking a loss against Roseboro-Salemburg on Thursday.
First against the Leopards, this game really seemed to be a game of spurts. After one quarter of play, RS took a 12-6 in a game that was close in the early going. By halftime, though, the Leopards had gained quite a bit of separation in taking a 26-12 advantage. The Raiders, though, came storming back in the third quarter and pulled back to within 30-24 with the game moving into the final quarter of play. That was as close as they could get, though, as Roseboro-Salemburg finished things off with a 44-34 victory.
Leading scorers for Midway were Tripp Westbrook with 12 points followed by Emmanuel Firstov-Cook with five. For the Leopards, Nakai O. had 15 points and Antonio M. had 14 points.
Midway head coach Josh Bullard acknowledged how proud he was of his team’s performance on Thursday, in spite of the loss. “The RS backcourt really gave us trouble at times today,” he said. “It wasn’t all bad today, though. I’m proud of the boys for the way they came out in the third quarter and we were able to cut into the lead.”
Earlier in the week, Midway got a close win over Union, taking that game by the final score of 33-25.
Midway Girls
This game also was close in the early going but eventually the Lady Raiders were able to take a 40-15 victory.
The score was 6-2 in favor of Midway at the end of the first quarter but stood at 21-6 at halftime. From there, Midway continued to grow their lead each quarter and went on to coast to the big win.
McKenzie Williams had eight points for Midway followed by Morgan Williams with seven points and four rebounds. Skye Parker had five points and Bella Lisk had five points and 12 rebounds.
Kara Beth Benton followed with four points and four steals. Rounding out the scoring for the Lady Raiders was Glenna McLamb with four points, Morgan hall three points, and Reagan Adams and Emma Lockamy each had two points.
“In the first quarter we were slow getting going with McKenzie Williams being the only one to score,” said Midway head coach Selene Joseph. “She had six of her eight points in the first quarter. The second quarter, we pressed a little which seemed to get us moving and we came alive a little more. I was very proud of the team for their effort and having nine different girls to score.”