Wylie East sophomore Brayden Doolan scored five points in last Friday’s 56-42 loss to Naaman Forest. Photo by Elijah Kloepping / C&S Media
By David Wolman
The Wylie East boys basketball team was unable to build on an eight-point second half lead, and Naaman Forest closed the game on a dominant 33-11 run over the final 13 minutes to stun Wylie East 56-42 at the Williams Center last Friday.
A hustle play helped the Raiders take a 31-23 lead midway through the third quarter. Senior Mikiyas Abiy leaped near midcourt to save the ball back into the Rangers’ half and avoid an over-and-back violation. The play led to a jumper by junior point guard Preston Samuels.
From there, however, the momentum shifted entirely to Naaman Forest.
Wylie East struggled to convert Ranger turnovers into points and had difficulty containing senior power forward Elijah Egbon. Egbon scored six straight points and totaled 11 in the third quarter, capped by a putback that gave Naaman Forest a 36-33 lead with 1:02 remaining in the period.
Egbon poured in 26 points to lead all scorers.
Naaman Forest put the game away early in the fourth quarter.
Senior Ashwin Amaranayaka buried a pair of 3-pointers within a 31-second span to extend the Rangers’ lead to 44-33.
Samuels cut the deficit to 49-40 with a steal and layup, but his basket came with just 45 seconds remaining, and time ran out on the Raiders.
Olufemi netted 13 points for Wylie East, followed by 12 from Samuels.
The Raiders dropped to 5-6 overall, 1-3 in District 9-6A with the loss.
0 Comments