New Kent takes care of Smithfield, grabs number one spot in regional playoffs

New Kent’s Deven Bailey looks to get around a Smithfield defender during an early third quarter drive.

Robb Johnson photo

New Kent’s Trojans clinched the top seed in Region 3A in convincing fashion with a 66-48 victory over the visiting Smithfield Packers during the Feb. 16 Bay Rivers District contest.

From the tip, New Kent set the pace of the game, jumping out to a 34-18 lead by the halftime intermission hit. When the break ended, Christian Joyner scored the first four points for the Trojans, with a free throw from Kingston Young pushing New Kent’s lead to 19 (39-20).

Smithfield attempted to comeback, but the Trojans team continued to get consistent scoring from familiar faces in bigger roads. At the beginning of the fourth, Caleb Marable drained a three-pointer to keep the home team’s lead in double-digits. A few sequences later, Joyner drained his second trifecta of the night, pushing the game out of reach as the Trojans’ defense held the Packers to nine points in the fourth quarter.

After the game, New Kent Head Coach Garrett Ross knows his team must pick up the offensive aggressiveness with leading scorer Marty Wray expected to miss the rest of the season.

“We always want to get better and play with tempo,” he said. “I hope we can get back to 70 to 75 [percent] and get more aggressive to the basket.

“Marty got us a lot of twos and not just threes under the basket,” Ross continued. “we have to fill that void and be more aggressive heading into the playoffs.”

Joyner’s 25 points led New Kent, who finishes the regular season with a record of 18-2. Kris Leeper tossed in eight, the duo of Young and Jarred Hathaway finished with six, Jaron Collins tossed in five, the duo of Bailey and Jacob Robinson contributed four apiece, Marable and A.J. Wilson pumped in three, and Eli Latimer chipped in with two.