Farmville Central 72 – Broughton 67
Head coach Larry Williford of Farmville Central brings tradition and one of the state’s most talented teams regardless of affiliation. They have played in back to back NCHSAA 2A state championships and went 32-0 last season. This season they are off to another outstanding start and have won 41 consecutive games over the past two seasons. Leading the way is 6’3 NC Central commit Justin Wright and 6’3 junior Terquavion Smith, who is verbally committed to NC State. Broughton first-year head coach Clarence Coleman is rebuilding from last year’s team that went 17-10 and graduated the majority of their starters but has a promising young freshman in 6’0 Will Otto.
Coming into today’s game, Broughton is 1-7 while Farmville Central is 9-0. However, Broughton, playing on its home court and crowd, raced out to a surprisingly 23-19 first-quarter lead. Broughton came out inspired and no one told them Farmville Central was the heavy favorite. Playing an aggressive 2-3 zone, Farmville Central seemed to be completely out of sync offensively and stone-cold from the perimeter, as Broughton took a 37-26 halftime lead. Broughton had seven players scratch the scoring column with 6’1 senior Naikeed Thomas leading the way with nine points while 6’5 senior Jack Thorne chipped in eight points. For the first half, Broughton went 16-31 from the floor for a shooting percentage of 51.6% while Farmville Central struggled from the floor going a dismal 8-31 for 25%.
In the third quarter, playing with more sense of urgency, Farmville Central battled back to tie the game at 53-53. Farmville Central went on a 27-16 run by pressing, crashing the boards and hitting 12 free throws. 6’2 senior Samage Teel (Farmville Central) put his team on his shoulders by scoring 11 points. The fourth quarter saw both teams trade leads and the outcome wasn’t decided until the final seconds as Farmville Central escaped with a thrilling and exciting 72-67 win.
Leading the way for Farmville Central was Teel with a game-high 28 points (20 of them coming in the second half). Teel went 9-for-16 from the floor and 10-of-11 from the free-throw line, not to mention four steals. Also, Smith finished with 18 points while Wright chipped in 11 points, eight rebounds, and five steals for the game.
For Broughton, they had three players in double digits. Leading the way was Otto with 16 points, going 5-for-10 from the floor, 2-of-6 from the 3-point line, and 4-of-4 from the free-throw line. In addition, he had four rebounds, dished out three assists and only committed one turnover. 6’3 junior Garrett Bizyak and 6’1 sophomore Julien King both tallied 15 points.
Game MVP: 6’2 senior Samage Teel (Farmville Central)
With his team struggling to find the range from the perimeter, Samage Teel took it upon himself and carried Farmville Central to a come from behind win. Teel finished with 28 points with 20 of them coming in the second half.