WEB CAST.
The night began for Coach Gray and his Trojans prior to the game as all of the senior boys and girls basketball players and cheerleaders were honored, along with the Senior Night presentation, Anette Atkinson (class of 1987) presented Super Senior Stephon Drane with a plaque as he was nominated for the McDonald's All-American game, and the nominated must have fired up the Senior as Drane dropped 16 first half points en route to a new career high 32 points to lead Garner past Harnett Central 86-73 in the final regular season game of the season.
Garner started all for seniors, Darne' Hall, Matt Koscinelly, Stephon Drane and Matt Powell and they played well as they paced the Trojans early in the game, however, Coach Gray brought in the regulars and after the first quarter, Garner had a 22-17 lead as they were led by Stephon Drane with 8 first quarter points and at one time, Drane had scored all of Garner's points.
The Trojans began to pull away in the second quarter as Gavin Wilson came off the bench to find his stroke as he hit three three point shots as he set a new career high with 20 points as the Trojans had a 48 -35 lead at halftime.
Garner would pad their lead in the third quarter, and used a 19 point third quarter effort to extend the lead to 67-52 after three. But, when the fourth quarter started, Harnett Central hit two big three pointer's and all of a sudden, the lead was cut to seven points at 67-60.
Once that happened, Garner went on a run and finally put the game away the big key to the Trojan success down the stretch was the play inside by Drane and Dominique Reed who finished the game with 10 points, and six of them coming in the fourth quarter.
With the 86-73 win, Garner finishes the regular season with a 13-8 overall record and a 12-2 conference mark. Garner is also the number one seed in the GNRC tournament which will begin on Tuesday with two games at Garner.
Beginning at 6:00, West Johnston will play Southeast Raleigh and Garner will play SSS at 7:30. Other games in the boys tournament will be at Knightdale with Clayton playing East Wake at 6:00 and Knightdale playing SSS at 7:30.
Below, you will find the Boys GNRC Tournament Bracket:
Game 1: (1) Garner vs. (8) Smithfield-Selma - 7:30 at Garner
Game 2: (4) West Johnston vs. (5) Southeast Raleigh - 6:00 at Garner
Game 3: (2) Knigthdale vs. (7) Harnett Central - 7:30 at Knightdale
Game 4: (3) Clayton vs. (6) East Wake - 6:00 at Knightdale
Scoring
Harnett Central: B. Taylor 21, A. Chatman 14, E. Baggett 13, T. Wheelin 7, J. Spears 6, B. McMillian 6, C. Hill 5,
GARNER: S. Drane 32, G. Wilson 20, D. Reed 10, D. Johnson 7, J. McClain 6, D. Hall 5, M. Powell 4, E. McClain 2.
Varsity Girls Win Thriller
Garner and Harnett Central started off slow on Monday night as after the first quarter, the score was 8-6 Harnett Central, but following the sluggish start the two teams found their rhythm, but it would be Garner who would have to get on the comeback trail and they did just that as they climbed back into the game in the fourth quarter.
One of the biggest keys to the Trojan comeback was the outside shooting of Jennifer Steinbach who hit three big three pointers down the stretch as Garner came from behind to avenge an earlier season loss to Harnett Central with a 46-42 win.
Garner finishes the season as the fourth seed in the conference and they will play Knightdale on Tuesday night at either Clayton or Southeast Raleigh. Below you will find the Girls GNRC Bracket:
Game 1: (1) Southeast Raleigh vs. (8) West Johnston - 7:30 at Southeast Raleigh Game 2: (4) Garner vs. (5) Knightdale - 6:00 at Southeast Raleigh
Game 3: (2) Clayton vs. (7) Smithfield-Selma - 7:30 at Clayton
Game 4: (3) East Wake vs. (6) Harnett Central - 6:00 at Clayton
JV Boys Win Thriller
After the weekend layoff Garner showed a lot of signs of rust as they weren't sharp and never really put things together.
The Trojans missed a lot of easy, close range shots, but battled against a very good Harnett Central team. Down by two with under 30 seconds to play, Garner forced Harnett Central into a turnover and got the ball back with 8 seconds remaining.
After a time out the Trojan coaching staff drew a play up, Jarie Hicks got a 3 pointer off and banked it in with just .2 seconds left on the clock.
The win seals hte 2nd straight conference championship for the Trojans as they finish the season at 15 - 4 overall and 12 - 2 in the conference.
Harnett Central 9 27 33 47
Garner 15 27 33 48
Cameron Redd 12 pts
Jarie Hicks
Juwan Moye 8 pts
Rashaun Shaw 7 pts
