Despite ugly outing, New Kent overwhelms West Point 84-47

New Kent's Dean Powell muscles his way into the lane for a shot despite defensive pressure from a trio of Pointers including Marshall Gill (23) and Tyler Lockhart (15).

Alan Chamberlain photo

Saturday night’s renewal of the basketball rivalry between New Kent’s Trojans and West Point’s Pointers proved to be the type of contest that, at the conclusion, would best be covered with a paper bag. It wasn’t pretty.

New Kent led wire-to-wire in a rout, leaving little doubt as to the outcome after one quarter before racing away to an 84-47 triumph. And while the margin of victory seemed impressive, overall play on the part of the winners didn’t exactly rise to the stellar level.

“I don’t know what to make of it,” said Trojan coach Ronnie Cox, who came in expecting a solid performance after his team tasted a rout from the other side one night earlier at Smithfield.

“I wanted us to come out tonight and play a really good, clean game, and not be reckless and out of control,” he said. “The good thing about tonight is that everybody got in and everybody contributed. It’s not always easy to get that with all 12 contributing.”

The teams combined for 14 first quarter turnovers. New Kent, meanwhile, shot 35 percent from the floor in building a 19-3 lead. West Point failed to connect on a field goal in the opening period, a drought that lasted until the 6:25 mark of period two.

New Kent steadily pulled away before halftime. Ryan Lugg’s trey from the corner opened a 30-point advantage (40-10) with just over two minutes left before the break.

“West Point played hard, but they’re definitely down this year,” Cox said. “But I’ve got to hand it to them. They didn’t give it away.”

New Kent (4-4) placed four players in double digits led by Jordan Hernandez’s 19 points. Amari Brown tossed in 13 while Kyle Claytor totaled 11 and Lugg finished with 10. Darren Harris scored seven followed by five each from Dean Powell and Evan Branch, four apiece from Ryan Curle, Patrick Minor, and Hunter Torres, and C.J. Reeders’ two.