New Kent Charles City Chronicle

News for New Kent County and Charles City County, Virginia | March 28, 2024

Sluggish performance by Trojans detrimental in loss to Bruton

By Robb Johnson | January 18, 2020 10:16 am

New Kent’s Calvin York (left) uses a quick step to get by Bruton’s Jayden Stokes on a drive to the basket.

Robb Johnson photo

The struggles for New Kent’s Trojans continued Friday night, as the inability to keep the visiting Bruton Panthers off the line haunted the hosts.

Taking 20 attempts from the charity stripe in the fourth quarter alone, Bruton grinded out a 67-59 victory over New Kent in Friday night’s Bay Rivers District game.

After the teams played relatively close in the first quarter, Bruton stretched the lead out to eight (28-20), forcing Trojan head coach Garrett Ross to call a timeout. After New Kent’s Jalen Bank drained a three-pointer out of the break, New Kent orchestrated a run with Kevin Harris’ conventional three-point play and another Banks score to cut the deficit to one (29-28). Bruton’s Rakewon Bartlett sank a runner just before the break to hand the visitors a 31-28 lead at halftime.

New Kent emerged from the intermission with a spark, as Jared McCaughan’s trifecta propelled the hosts to a 41-35 lead, bestowing the hosts their biggest advantage of the night.

But momentum pulled away from the hosts, as bad execution on the offensive end combined with lackluster defense allowed Bruton to orchestrate a 13-2 run, capped off by an Adam McMillion trifecta as both teams prepped for the fourth quarter.

Shot after shot failed to fall for the hosts, as their energy level sparked fouls that sent Bruton to the free throw line. Still, New Kent had opportunities to win the game. With the score 59-54 in favor of the visitors, Banks hit a three-pointer with 33 seconds on the clock to cut the lead to two.

After Bruton stretched the advantage back to three (60-57), New Kent’s Harris missed a pair of shots from the charity stripe, forcing the Trojans to foul. The Panthers did enough by sinking free throws at the line to escape the gym with the win.

Ross said that Bruton’s defense changed the rhythm of the contest.

“Give credit to Bruton. They came out in their 2-3 [zone] and threw our rhythm off,” he commented. “The last few games we were able to get into a rhythm, it was early against a man-to-man.

“We got a couple of fouls against us and that through our rhythm off where we stopped looking inside,” Ross continued. “We had the chances.”

McCaughan’s 19 points led New Kent (4-7) in the defeat. Banks pumped in 13, Harris contributed 11, Logan Frederick pumped in six, and the duo of Spencer Gilland and Julius Jacobs each pumped in five.