By Bob Sutton
Special to The Alamance News
Basketball coaching debuts were successful for Williams boys’ coach Jimmy Lloyd and Eastern Alamance girls’ coach LeConnda Curry and boys’ coach Parrish Walker.
Williams posted a 56-53 victory Tuesday night at Eastern Guilford in former assistant coach Lloyd’s first game as head coach. He replaced retired Tommy Cole.
“It was a good night,” Lloyd said. “A very fun game. We had to show a little resiliency.”
Brian Williams’ basket off an offensive rebound gave the Bulldogs a three-point cushion in the waning seconds. Eastern Guilford’s last possession was foiled in an attempt to tie.
Milton Turner’s 19 points and 12 rebounds, Williams’ 16 points and freshman point guard Cavion Stokes’ 11 points were big for the Bulldogs.
Williams players greeted the new coach with a postgame water dousing in the locker room.
• Eastern Alamance won its debut under Walker by winning 73-70 at Bartlett Yancey. Ja’vier Tinnin poured in 23 points for the Eagles in that November 20 game.
The Eagles followed that by rolling past host Graham 77-26 on Tuesday night.
Eastern Alamance’s girls won their first game under Curry with a 61-32 trouncing of host Bartlett Yancey with Makayla Thompson scoring 14 points.
• The Williams girls opened the season with a 66-62 road win Tuesday night at Eastern Guilford.
• Western Alamance’s girls began the season with a 52-37 triumph Tuesday night at Northwest Guilford. In the boys’ game, Western fell 53-52.
• Season debuts for Southern Alamance and Southeast Alamance were delayed when their non-league matchups originally slated for Tuesday night were moved to next Wednesday because those schools had extended runs in the football state playoffs.
So Southeast will play its first basketball games in school history with a girls’/boys’ doubleheader Thursday night at home vs. Eastern Alamance. Southern opens the season Friday night vs. visiting Graham.
Wrestling
At Asheboro, Mason Tanner of Eastern Alamance won first place in the Cold Turkey Invitational on Saturday.
Tanner, competing in the 150-pound class, received a bye before pinning Union Pines’ Jackson Gagnard in 49 seconds of the semifinal.
In the title bout, Tanner flattened Providence Grove’s Ashton Davis with 16 seconds remaining in the third period.
Elijah Watson of Eastern Alamance claimed third at 113 pounds and teammate Carson Gardner was fourth at 144.
The Eagles placed fifth in the team standings among 10 teams, with Union Pines the team winner and host Asheboro the runner-up. Southeast Alamance was last.
