By Dave Morrison
It wasn’t the 30 points Roanoke Catholic’s Clarence Turpin put up against his team that upset Woodrow Wilson coach Ron Kidd.
It was the manner in which they were allowed.
Turpin’s big game led the Celtics to a convincing 74-54 win Friday night in the Big Atlantic Classic at the Beckley-Raleigh County Convention Center.
“Everything he got, it looked easy,” Kidd said. “I mean, the kid scored, he’s a shooter, but you’ve got to at least try to make it hard on him. Put a hand up. He had open looks on nearly every shot he took.”
Still, the depleted Flying Eagles hung around.
They battled back from 10 down in the first half and they fought back from seven down in the third quarter.
They even had a couple leads early in the second half.
After Curtis Estep and Larry Terry had back-to-back baskets to pull the Eagles to within one, 45-44, the wheels came off.
“We went to a zone,” Roanoke Catholic coach Dennis Blanchard said. “I wasn’t sure that was the best thing to do because they had hit some (threes) earlier in the game. But when we did that, it seemed to switch the momentum in our favor.”
After Stephen Thompson scored with 3:38 left in the third, Woodrow wouldn’t score again until the 5:28 mark of the fourth.
That opened the door for a 16-0 Celtic run.
“We have spurts now where we play well, but we’ve got to close and we haven’t done that,” Kidd said. “We didn’t have any intensity. And that is my fault.”
It didn’t help that leading scorer Cameron Shannon was shut out.
“When you aren’t scoring, you gotta find other ways to contribute,” Kidd said. “I didn’t see that.”
Thompson had 12 points and 11 rebounds for Woodrow. Estep and freshman Andrew Johnson had 14 each.
Woodrow plays Parkersburg South at 9 p.m. today.
Roanoke Catholic 74, Woodrow Wilson 54
Roanoke Catholic (11-8)
Clarence Turpin 12 2-3 30, Archie Hicklin 3 2-2 8, Stephen Voulacic 4 0-0 1, Matt Moats 2 3-6 7, Tim Westmoreland 1 4-7 7, Richard Romeo 1 0-0 2, Ifane Anukaha 1 3-4 5, Nick Ollie 2 0-1 4. Totals: 26 14-23 74.
Woodrow Wilson (4-8)
Jay Webb 0 0-0 0, Stephen Thompson 4 3-3 12, Cameron Shannon 0 0-0 0, Curtis Estep 6 0-0 14, Larry Terry 4 0-0 9, Andrew Johnson 4 4-6 14, Shatique Oglesby 1 0-0 2, Matt Porter 0 0-0 0, Christian Day 1 1-1 3, Steven Lewis 0 0-3 0. Totals: 20 8-13 54.
RC 19 15 22 18 — 74
WW 12 21 11 10 — 54
Three-point goals: RC: 8 (Turpin 4, Voulacic 3, Westmoreland); WW: 6 (Thompson, Estep 2, Terry, Johnson 2); Fouled out: none.
