By: Zack Adams
2/14/18
RALEIGH -- Tuesday marked the opening day of the Boys Northern Athletic Conference, or the NAC-6 Tournament. Wakefield (17-8, 6-5) took home the three seed in the NAC-6 so they played host to the six seed, Corinth Holders (5-19, 1-10). Wakefield staved off the Pirates three point assault from the first half to storm back to beat Corinth Holders, 56-52.
Both Trae Smith and Elijah Shabazz have gotten their fare share of points and rebounds against the "purple and gold" in the two previous meetings. Smith scored 22 and Shabazz had 11 points and 13 rebounds in the teams' meeting on Jan. 12 (59-37 Wakefield win). Smith poured in 17 and grabbed 13 rebounds on Feb. 2 in Wendell while Shabazz just scored seven points but hauled in 15 rebounds, seven of which coming in the closing stanza (49-48 Corinth win).
Tuesday, Episode Three of the "Smith and Shabazz Show" aired. Trae Smith led Wakefield with 15 points and eight rebounds. Smith also shot a perfect, 5/5 from the foul line. Elijah Shabazz is just an animal inside. Shabazz chipped in 12 points but grabbed a game-high, 18 rebounds. Jayden Gardner must have shared some Kool-Aid with Shabazz pre-game or something. Not only did he stuff the points and rebounding column on the stat sheet, he dished out some dimes. Seven assists for Shabazz, which was also a game-high. Reminder to any NAC-6 foe for the 2018-19 season, these two are juniors. Senior Styles McClain finished with 12 points as well and also shot perfect from the foul line, as he went 4/4.
Corinth Holders came out firing, literally. The Pirates knocked down four of their seven threes Tuesday in the opening frame. Of those seven triples, Tanner Smith hit three of them. Smith shot 60% (3/5) from long distance en route to his 15-point night. After only scoring six and two points in Corinth's previous two contests, putting up a 15 spot in his team's final game of the season is all you can ask for to close his sophomore campaign. Junior Cameron Walden also poured in 15 points. Walden knocked down two threes in the first half as well, a season-high from him downtown. The junior does most of the ball handling for Chris Davis' Pirates and he did his job of getting his teammates involved. Walden dished out six assists, three per half. Guilford College commit, Warren Ramsey concluded his high school career with 10 points. Ramsey averaged 11.6 points per game over his last five contests and unfortunately for the Pirates, the senior got hot a bit too late.
As previously stated, the Pirates came out on fire. Wakefield, not so much. Corinth Holders shot 50% (7/14) from three point land while Wakefield shot just 0.83%. (1/12). The only three the Wolverines hit was clutch, though. Trent Wilson received a dime from none other than -- wait for it -- Elijah Shabazz and connected on the three from the wing, with 3:36 to play in the game.
Wakefield indeed handled business from the foul line in the fourth. Garrett Stevens' team shot 9/12, or 75% from the stripe in the closing eight minutes to seal the deal. Smith went 4/4 and McClain went 2/2 in the quarter. As a team for the game, the Wolverines also shot 75% (15/20). Corinth Holders also shot foul shots well and they went 8/9 (88%) from the stripe, which is a season best.
Corinth may have shot well but they surely did not rebound well. Wakefield won the rebound margin by a whopping 20 rebounds (41-21). 18 of those 41 came from Shabazz so yet again to make another statement of how good the junior played, he almost single handily out-rebounded Corinth Holders. Insanity. Senior Zack Brewster pulled down 12 rebounds for the Pirates to go with his four points and four blocks.
This four-point defeat concludes Corinth Holders' season. The young Pirates squad finished their first season of 4A ball just 1-10 in the NAC-6 but did grow up a lot over the course of four months. Wakefield, who owns the three seed, will now face the two seeded, Knightdale Knights on Thursday at Heritage. That one is set to tip-off at 7:00.
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