Lack of focus haunts Chatham against Eastern Alamance

It was a tale of two halves for Chatham against Eastern Alamance on the first day of the 2008 Register & Bee Holiday Shootout. The Cavaliers battled with the one-loss Eagles for the first 11 minutes and kept things close.

But, as soon as the Eagles saw an opening, they took it.

Eastern Alamance built a 21-point lead over the next seven minutes and pulled away from Chatham for a 78-56 victory on Friday at Averett University’s Grant Center.

The run was sparked in large part by the play of Eastern Alamance’s 6-foot-6 post player Ryan King. The junior center scored 10 of his game-high 21 points during the Eagles’ game-defining 25-4 run. King also pulled down a game-high 14 rebounds, most of which came on the offensive glass.

“We were so disappointed in our offensive execution,” Eastern Alamance coach John Moon said. “We love to run, but we also believe in executing in the half-court set and we struggled with that early. Second half it got a little better, we got a working margin lead there and got some transition baskets and were able to penetrate and dish it off to Ryan.”

Many of those baskets in transition came off the pressure from senior point guard Justin Clayton, who harassed the Chatham (5-3) point guards into numerous turnovers and creating easy baskets, most of which contributed to Clayton’s 16-point night.

Eastern Alamance (7-1) was unable to pull away from Chatham early, thanks in part to Patrick Murphy. The junior swingman scored 10 of the Cavaliers first 20 points, including a conventional 3-point play that tied the game at 20 with 5:30 left in the first half.

After that basket, Chatham was held to four points over the next seven minutes and Eastern Alamance scored 25, expanding the lead to 45-24 and never allowing the Cavaliers to get within 12 points after that run.

“First quarter, Chatham battled right there with us,” Moon said. “We can be very great, but we can be our own worst enemies and that just drives a coach crazy.”

Murphy led Chatham with 19 points, but he only scored five in the second half. Markell Craft added 10 points and Marcus Fuller contributed eight first-half points.

Eric Hester added 13 points for Eastern Alamance and Jordan Carter scored 12.

“Focus. Biggest key is focus. Focus is what you got to have and I just don’t think we were focused as we needed to be,” Chatham coach Barry Mayo said. “I think our focus and our intensity just wasn’t there. That’s what it takes to win ball games.”