Tuesday at Union Pines, there was almost always a defender draped all over him, but he still managed 30 points as the Wildcats handed the Vikings a 69-58 defeat.
Three of his five three-pointers came at the end of the third quarter, turning a 34-31 Viking lead into a 42-36 deficit
“I thought number 20 (B.J. McLeod) and number 32 (Anthony Jones) did a great job on me defensively,” the 6-foot-1 senior guard said after the game. “They forced me to shoot a lot of deep threes. Coach (Lucious Haley) feels comfortable with me taking those shots.”
The Vikings, 2-7 in the Tri-County Conference and 8-11 overall, made only a third of their shots from the field in suffering another blow to their state playoff aspirations. McLeod with 14 points and Joseph Daley, 13, led the scoring for the home team. The Wildcats improved to 6-3 and 14-5.
While Emerson was getting the box-and-one treatment, the Wildcats were comfortable leaving the Viking point guards open and denying penetration. The Vikings were patient using balanced scoring to take a 28-25 halftime lead while committing only two turnovers.
“They kind of sloughed off our guards,” Viking coach Bobby Purvis said of a Wildcat strategy that led to two made out of 11 three-point attempts in the first half. “They challenged us to make plays out there.”
Three-point plays by Daley and McLeod helped the Vikings maintain the short lead heading into the closing minutes of the third quarter. The game was tied for the eighth and last time at 34-34 on the first of Emerson’s trio of treys in just over a minute.
A jumper by the Vikes’ Talmadge Whitney at the start of the fourth period cut the Wildcat lead to 42-38. But Emerson began attacking the glass and made two at the foul line to extend the lead back to six points.
The Vikings never got closer than five points after that. Forced to foul, Emerson and forward Jason Brown combined to sink 18 of 19 shots at the foul line in the fourth quarter. They scored all but one of the visitor’s 27 fourth-period points.
Purvis said that he is disappointed for his players after another strong effort.
“Sometimes, when they make shots like that, it deflates you a little bit,” he said, referring to some of Emerson’s baskets. “I think at times our kids thought they were doing everything they could, and I did too.”
The winners made 36 percent of their shots from the field and 79 percent from the foul line (25 of 31). Brown backed Emerson with 19 points. In a crisply played game, before the late Wildcat parade to the foul line, the Vikings committed just eight turnovers to nine for the visitors.
Union Pines played a makeup game at Southeast Guilford Wednesday (story above) and travels to the state’s top-ranked 3-A school Trinity (20-0) tonight for a 7:30 p.m. contest. In another makeup, the Vikings entertain Ragsdale on Monday, Senior Night.
The Eastern Randolph junior varsity defeated the Vikings 58-38 in Ramseur.
E. Randolph 13 12 17 27 — 69
Union Pines 11 17 8 22 — 58
Eastern Randolph - England 1 3-5 5, Emerson 8 9-10 30, Brown 5 9-10 19, Glover 3 1-2 10, Scotten 1 1-2 3, Headen 0 2-4 2, Brady 0 0-0 0, Coltrane 0 0-0 0. Totals - 18 25-31 69.
Union Pines - Morales 0 0-0 0, McLeod 4 5-8 14, Jones 2 1-1 5, Daley 4 5-7 13, Wilborn 4 0-0 8, Patel 1 2-2 5, Kyle 2 1-2 6, Norbury 1 0-0 2, Whitney 1 0-0 2, Patterson 1 1-1 3, Thompson 0 0-0 0. Totals - 20 15-21 58.
Three-point goals: Eastern Randolph 8 (Emerson 5, Glover 3); Union Pines 3 (Kyle, McLeod, Patel).
