New Kent Charles City Chronicle

News for New Kent County and Charles City County, Virginia | October 9, 2024

Tabb hands New Kent its first loss

By Alan Chamberlain | December 17, 2008 9:48 am

Entering Friday’s clash with Tabb’s invading Tigers, New Kent Trojans sat alone atop the Bay Rivers basketball standings as the last remaining unbeaten district team. The Tigers, however, yanked the Trojans back down to Earth.

Aside from a brief first half flash of brilliance, the hosts were never in the game. Tabb dominated, especially in the second half, racing away to a 65-44 victory. The outcome dropped New Kent to 3-1, a half-game behind the now first place Tigers (4-1).

“I’m not happy at all,” said Trojan coach Ed Allen after emerging from a lengthy post-game meeting with his team in the locker room.

“Our effort was not good at all. We played horribly,” he said. “Tabb had a good game plan and executed it while we didn’t play well at all. We had several kids who didn’t seem to be playing hard.”

The Trojans threw the ball away on three occasions and turned it over twice more on extra steps as the Tigers raced out to a 15-4 first quarter lead. Steven Allen’s three-pointer and Darrell Fenton’s stick-back began a Trojan surge that carried into the second period.

Fenton scored two more field goals to open the second quarter and Carter Gilland buried a trey from the corner to overtake the Tigers at 16-15. But after a time out, Tabb answered with a 9-0 run and never lost control the rest of the way.

New Kent had its chances in the third quarter after Justin Williams’ lay-in cut an eight-point halftime deficit to six at 26-20. But the Trojans missed seven shots from three-point range, enabling Tabb to up its advantage to 15.

Williams’ three-pointer followed by an Allen trey and another Williams’ three got the hosts within striking distance at 39-31. Tabb, however, owned an 11-point lead heading into the final eight minutes and pulled away from there.

“To beat Tabb, we’ve got to get out and put pressure on them to keep them out of their half-court offense,” Allen said. “But we did not do a good job on that at all, and we couldn’t seem to get five people putting out the effort to do that.

“We were too comfortable taking three-point shots,” he said. “This is very disappointing, but maybe it’s a wake-up call. It may be a situation where we figure out what we’ve got to do, and I hope that’s it.”

Allen and Williams scored in double figures with 11 and 10 points, respectively. Fenton finished with six followed by Kaleb Lamb’s five, three each from Gilland, Everett Christian, and Paul Robinson, Paul Kearney’s two, and Kevin Chavis’ one.

Tabb’s Sean Case and Don Smalls each tossed in 20 to lead all scorers.

In the preliminary, Tabb’s JV built a 24-10 halftime lead and never looked back on the way to a 56-34 win.

New Kent was led by Alandre Washington’s six points and Anthony Snipes’ five. Jared Dickerson, Zach Jacobs, Matt Fultz, and Justin Parsley scored four apiece while Aaron Loftin ended with three and Tanner Luck and Eric Salmon each chipped in two.