West Brunswick remains winless in league

WILMINGTON—West Brunswick’s last realistic chance of winning a Mideastern 3A/4A Conference high school boys’ basketball game this season fell by the wayside Friday night.

The Trojans found themselves in a hole early and never really threatened to stage a comeback in a 58-47 loss at Ashley. It was their 13th loss in the last 15 games.

“Just too many careless mistakes,” said West Brunswick coach Brad Lewis. “We still don’t play 32 minutes. We play in spurts.”

Ajay Singh scored a game-high 24 points, C.J. Caldwell added 13 and Xavier James had 11 to lead the Screaming Eagles (2-7 conference, 6-14 overall).

Sophomore center Alfy Hill scored 16 points and junior guard Pat Kamfolt had 10 for West Brunswick (0-9 conference, 5-15 overall).

Caldwell scored the first five points of the game and Ashley never trailed. The Eagles led 10-7 at the end of the first quarter and put together a 14-4 spurt in the second period for a 24-13 lead.

“We had a couple guys early on that just weren’t into it,” Lewis said. “Right at the end of the half we got frustrated and started pouting and gave up some layups because things weren’t going well.”

West Brunswick managed to cut a 13-point deficit to eight on a three-pointer by Kamfolt and layup by Hill in the final 45 seconds of the second quarter. The Trojans trailed 30-22 at halftime.

“We were lucky to score the last five and cut it to eight and still have a chance because we really kind of quit the last two minutes of the second quarter,” Lewis said.

The Trojans pulled to within seven points early in the third quarter, but Ashley pulled away again and led 43-34 after three.

The Eagles scored seven unanswered points early in the fourth quarter to take a 50-36 lead.

West Brunswick cut it to 51-43 with 1:12 remaining and had a chance to get closer, but the Trojans missed two free throws and had a three-pointer roll in and out.

Ashley hit 5 of 6 free throws in the final 52 seconds to nail down the win.

“The second half I thought we played better. We just needed a couple shots to go in and we had a couple bad turnovers,” Lewis said.

“Every time it seemed like we were going to get a little bit of life, a little bit of momentum, we couldn’t quite get over the hump.”

West Brunswick had a game scheduled Tuesday night at Laney and will close out its home slate Friday against Jacksonville.

Next week, the Trojans visit New Hanover on Tuesday before wrapping up the regular season Friday at North Brunswick.

Game Summary

W. Brun. 7 15 12 13—47

Ashley 10 20 13 15—58

West Brunswick scoring: A. Hill 16, P. Kamfolt 10, Jackson 8, W. Kamfolt 7, Sanders 3, R. Hill 2, Stewart 1.

Ashley scoring: Singh 24, Caldwell 13, James 11, Bonsignore 3, Tarasco 2, Farias 2, Barbour 2, Clark 2.

DOUG RUTTER is the sports editor at the Beacon. Reach him at 754-6890 or at drutter@brunswickbeacon.com