WSPA downs Northeast Guilford for ninth-grade title

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Lets hear it for my school WSPA.

W-S Prep downs Northeast Guilford for ninth-grade title

By Anthony Hill
The Chronicle

The David Lash/Chronicle Tournament was as exciting as advertised once again.

For the 12th-straight year, the tournament showcased some of the best young talent in the city. West Forsyth once again proved to be the top junior varsity team in the county, while Winston-Salem Preparatory Academy won the ninth-grade title in its first year of operation. Winston-Salem Prep defeated Northeast Guilford 42-36 for the ninth-grade title.

West Forsyth downed Mt. Tabor 64-49 for the junior varsity title in the Carver gymnasium last week.

The first championship game of the tournament was the ninth-grade title tilt between Winston-Salem Prep and Northeast Guilford. Northeast Guilford defeated Winston-Salem Prep by a small margin earlier in the season, so some of the Winston-Salem Prep players had a little revenge on their minds before the game.

"Revenge is always the sweetest victory," said Winston-Salem Prep guard Marcus, who captured Most Valuable Player honors in the ninth-grade tournament. "I definitely wanted to get revenge on them."

And revenge is seemingly what the Phoenix got, along with a tournament championship after beating the Rams by 6 points.

"This is our first year as a program," Winston-Salem Prep head coach Gould said, "...and we've walked in here and walked away with a Lash championship. That's unheard of to me."

Northeast Guilford head coach Cole added: "I knew they were going to come out prepared to play this game. This is a good team. Coach Gould does a good job. We've known one another for a number of years, since he was at Reynolds. Of course, I wish things would've turned out differently for the kids, but Winston-Salem Prep had to play hard to beat us."

The Phoenix played an almost flawless game, leading for most of the game behind the play of Marcus and Terry . Jarrell , Idris and Aaron also stepped up for Winston-Salem Prep. The Phoenix held on to a 21-15 lead at the half.

"I felt like we had control of the entire game," Gould said. "We were just walking through the motions the last 8:15 of the game because they really didn't pose a threat to us."

But the Rams took a brief lead late in the game after slowing down Wright with various defensive schemes in the fourth quarter. That led to Gould calling a time-out to calm his troops down.

"My kids face all types of defense all year," Gould said. "Marcus has definitely seen all kinds. He faces a Box-and-1, a Triangle-2 - you name it, he's seen it. But he still came through for us when we needed him to. He really didn't have one of his better games today. But he still showed us why he's Marcus , at the right time. I think this win will catapult us to a great season."

Wright added: "I didn't really play my best game tonight, but coach kept talking to me and told me to keep my head in the game. And he told me to keep my teammates involved. This is a special win for us to win this tournament in our first year. Me and my teammates worked hard for this. Anyone could've gotten MVP the way we played."
 
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