Suffolk News-Herald

For the second time in less than a week, a huge scoring night from Vaughn Wilson led Nansemond River to a big home victory. Less than a week after helping his team to a win over district leader Deep Creek, Wilson took the Warriors to a 72-58 win over Theodore Roosevelt in the first Martin Luther King Jr. Roundball Classic.

The Warriors’ solid defensive effort was apparent from the start as River held the Rough Riders without a point for the opening 2:45. Roosevelt responded, putting together a 12-4 run to take a 12-8 lead with 2:37 left in the first quarter.

River closed out the quarter strong, as an Andre Jones three and a baseline drive and layin by Wilson capped a 9-2 run that put the Warriors up 19-16 at the end of the period.

The 12-8 Rough Rider advantage would be their last lead of the night.

Two Wilson scoring blitzes kept River in control during the second quarter.

First, about a minute in, Wilson scored five points in the span of seven seconds.

After draining his first three of the night, Wilson stole a Rough Rider pass at midcourt and took it back for an easy lay up, putting the Warriors up 25-18.

Roosevelt held River without a point for more than three minutes and tied the game at 25 before Wilson’s second outburst of the period. On back-to-back possessions, Wilson hit a three off the dribble, and then another three off an inbounds play, quickly rebuilding the Warrior lead to 31-25.

The Warriors carried a 35-27 lead to the locker room, largely behind 5-of-10 three-point shooting in the half.

Wilson had 17 points by halftime and Jones added nine.

Roosevelt came out of halftime using full court pressure, but the Warriors were unfazed.

Actually Wilson took advantage, scoring six of River’s first nine points in the third period, building a 44-34 lead, and forcing Roosevelt to disband their full court defense.

The Rough Riders closed the gap to 44-40, but two straight buckets in the lane from Josey got River back into rhythm, and got Josey rolling.

Josey would go on to score 14 second half points, but his most valuable moment of the game came with just over a minute to go in the third period.

In the one trip down the floor, Josey’s hard work around the basket picked up fourth fouls on Roosevelt’s main frontcourt pair of Jeffery Owens and Keenan Smith, who had totaled 27 points. They would combine for two points for the rest of the game and Owens fouled out midway through the fourth quarter.

Wright scored on the Warriors’ first two possessions of the fourth quarter, extending the lead to 56-47 with 6:30 left.

The late fourth quarter became a battle of free throw shooting.

Wilson wrapped up his 30 point performance by knocking home five of his last six free throws as a six point margin was as close as Roosevelt would get down the stretch.

A Jones breakaway right-handed dunk in the final twenty seconds was the exclamation point.

The Warriors (9-5, 6-2) outscored Roosevelt 20-11 in the final quarter.

In addition to Wilson’s 30 and Josey scored 16 and had six rebounds, Jones finished with 11 points and six rebounds; and Wright had eight points, six boards, and two blocked shots.

&uot;It was a good win,&uot; Jones said. &uot;We thought we were going to be more athletic [than Roosevelt], but we also played with emotion the whole game.&uot;

The Warriors go to Indian River on Tuesday.