By Sonny Jones
East Bladen earned the Southeastern Athletic Conference’s top playoff seed with a team that started fast, never lost more than two games consecutively, shared the regular-season title and reached the conference tournament championship game.
Tuesday, inside the East Bladen High gymnasium, the Eagles (19-6, No. 7 seed) will host a North Lenoir (14-12, No. 26 seed) team that used a strong performance in the second half of the season to earn a spot in the N.C. High School Athletic Association’s 2-A boys’ playoffs.
Game time is approximately 7:30 p.m. following the girls’ game between East Bladen and Red Springs. Admission is $8 cash at the door.
The winner of the game will advance to the second round on Thursday against the winner between No. 10 Franklin Academy (17-10) and No. 23 Eastern Wayne (10-15). If East Bladen wins Tuesday, it will host Thursday’s game.
Which team will win Tuesday’s NCHSAA playoff game?
— Bladen Online (@BladenOnline) February 21, 2023
It’s been an historic season for North Lenoir. The Hawks swept their regular-season meetings against perineial power Kinston for the first time before losing to the Vikings 48-28 in the East Central Conference tournament championship game. This is North Lenoir’s first winning season since 2017-18 when the Hawks finished 14-12.
It was Kinston’s 18th consecutive league tournament title. The Vikings (20-5) are the No. 4 seed in 2-A East and will host No. 29 North Pitt (9-16) on Tuesday.
Although no season statistics are available, senior guards Tre’Shad Lynch and Zyaire Rosber lead the North Lenoir offense. Lynch scored 32 points in the Hawks’ 58-57 win against Kinston in the regular season finale.
North Lenoir came on strong in the second half of the season. The Hawks were 4-8 after opening East Central Conference play with a 71-56 loss against Southwest Onslow. North Lenoir had won six straight before losing to Kinston last Friday. The Hawks finished third in the conference behind Kinston and Southwest Onslow.
East Bladen won its first five games and were 9-1 when the calendar flipped to 2023. The lone time the Eagles lost two straight came Jan. 30 at West Bladen (54-52) and Feb. 3 at Fairmont (68-66 in overtime). A 56-50 win at St. Pauls on the final night of the regular season allowed East Bladen to share the league’s regular season title with West Bladen.
East Bladen reached the Southeastern tournament championship game, losing to St. Pauls 41-38 in overtime, but earned the conference’s top playoff seed by virtual of a better Ratings Percentage Index than co-champion West Bladen.
The Eagles are a senior-laden squad. Guards Malcolm Bolden and Jacob Nixon have provided deadly outside shooting that opens the inside for center Zamar Lewis, who has racked up several double-doubles in points and rebounds throughout the season. Yontee Dobson has provided rebounding and defense. Sophomore Dominick Collins has come on at point guard as the season progressed. Sophomore Rodney Lacewell has given solid minutes off the bench and helped Lewis inside.
No statistics were available for East Bladen.
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