Goldsboro boys basketball beats undefeated Princeton in North Carolina

After winning its first 20 games — including 18 wins by 15 points or more — Princeton took part in another blowout Friday night. Except this time the Bulldogs were on the losing end.

Defending state finalist Goldsboro (14-6) upset the state's top-ranked 1A team 77-55 behind 21 points and nine assists from Devonte White.

Foul trouble was a big problem. Ben Jacobs scored 30 points for Princeton in the teams' first meeting — a 67-61 Bulldogs win — but was held to 15 on Friday (albeit with 12 rebounds) after picking up his fourth foul in the third quarter. Princeton point guard C J Jefferys (eight turnovers) also received his fourth foul in the third quarter.

According to the Raleigh News and Observer, they were both on the bench when the Cougars made a decisive 15-0 run before the third quarter ended.

"It would have been nice to have an undefeated regular season," Princeton coach Jeff Davis told the News and Observer. "The key thing now is how we bounce back from this."

Now tied with Goldsboro at 7-1 in the league, the Bulldogs need to beat Ayden-Grifton and Rosewood (Goldsboro) — teams they beat by a combined 50 points last month — to at least share a league title for the first time in 28 years.

Princeton's only other close game this season was against Spring Creek (Seven Springs). After beating the Gators by five on Jan. 28, the Bulldogs won 66-30 just five days later.

DIFFERENT PATHS FOR 4A UNBEATENS
While Princeton went down, the two undefeated teams in 4A stayed that way, although in much different fashions.
 
Caleb Anthony found Curt Myers for the winning layup with 56 seconds left in a 54-52 win for Reagan (Pfafftown) over Mount Tabor (Winston-Salem), which was held scoreless for the final 7:33 of the game.

Ozzie Otero (14 points) hit a tying 3-pointer with 4:30 remaining for Reagan, which came back from a 15-point deficit in the first quarter.

"When you play ball control and cutting as much as we were cutting in the game, as much as I think we wore them out, we wore ourselves out as well," Mount Tabor coach Andy Muse told the Winston-Salem Journal after the Spartans made just seven field goals in the final three quarters. "Still, we had three cracks at it in the end that we just didn't convert."

Meanwhile Donald Johnson scored 23 points and Gavin Wilson scored 22 as Garner Magnet crushed Southeast Raleigh 87-47. The Trojans had won by four points when the teams met last month.

CHARLOTTE RIVALRY ENDS
Olympic (Charlotte) and Waddell (Charlotte) played what is likely the final chapter of their big rivalry Friday night, with Olympic winning 68-45.

Waddell is one of 10 schools that the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School Board voted to close at the end of the 2010-11 school year.

Sophomore D'riece Parks came through with 23 points as the Trojans won their 35th straight league game, a streak that began 23 months ago. Parks made a school-record six 3-pointers, while teammate Josh Smith recorded 12 points and 11 rebounds.

Waddell's Jarvis Haywood scored 27 points — one more than his average over the past five games — but his teammates came up with just 18 more and the Raiders were behind by 21 points at the half.

There was no big comeback in the second half, unlike the teams' first meeting last month, when Olympic came back from a 17-point deficit with 4:30 left in the third quarter and wound up winning by nine.

Olympic was without injured senior point guard Reggie Arceneaux, a four-year varsity player, but Waddell was even more shorthanded with four players sitting out due to suspension.

YOU BE THE JUDGE
Dyshay Aliyah Kilpatrick, a junior on the nationally-ranked Butler (Matthews) girls basketball team, was suspended for at least 10 days earlier last week after taking part in an altercation after her basketball game against East Mecklenburg (Charlotte). Kilpatrick and both of her parents were by shown by WCNC NewsChannel 36 fighting with a school resource officer from the opposing school.

Was the punishment too lenient, or too harsh? Watch the video and judge for yourself.

ASHEVILLE REPRESENTED IN SUPER BOWL
Western North Carolina had a rooting interest in Sunday's Super Bowl — Pittsburgh Steelers rookie cornerback Crezdon Butler helped Asheville win a state championship in 2005.

According to the Asheville Citizen-Times, Butler could have been the fifth local player to get a Super Bowl ring, following Henderson graduate Sam Gash, a fullback for Baltimore in 2001; Owen graduate Brad Johnson, the quarterback for Tampa Bay in 2003; West Henderson graduate Mickey Marvin, a lineman for Oakland in 1981 and 1984; and Asheville graduate Leonard Little, a special teams player for St. Louis in 2000.

Butler was declared inactive before the Steelers lost to Green Bay, leaving Asheville residents to wonder whether he could have made a difference against Packers MVP Aaron Rodgers.

Harold Gutmann covers the state of North Carolina for MaxPreps.com. He lives in Durham and can be reached at haroldgutmann@gmail.com.