EAST ARCADIA — Despite suffering their first conference loss of the season on Monday, the Bulldogs of Paul R. Brown Leadership Academy remain in the hunt for at least a tie for the conference crown.
The Bulldogs were handed an 84-33 loss Monday by New Life Academy out of Fayetteville — the same team that beat Paul R. Brown by a 92-26 margin on Jan. 8, but were later forced to forfeit the win because of a “clerical error.”
The loss drops the Bulldogs to 4-1 in the conference, 5-3 overall.
The Monarchs employed a press through a majority of the game and it had an immediate effect. Paul R. Brown committed 35 turnovers in the game, while New Life turned the ball over just 14 times.
The Bulldogs found themselves down by a 32-10 margin after the first quarter of play, but New Life didn’t back off. A 29-9 run through the second quarter gave the Monarchs a 61-19 advantage by the intermission.
Scoring came down in the second half as New Life began using its subs, but the Monarchs still won the third quarter by a 13-8 verdict and increased the lead to 74-27 going into the fourth frame.
The defensive pressure against Paul R. Brown continued down the stretch with a full-court pressand half-court trap employed by the Monarchs. The visitors managed to take the fourth quarter by a 10-6 margin to seal the 51-point win.
“They pressed us a lot — which was OK, because we need to be able to practice against it,” said Bulldogs coach Ken Cross. “After a while we started to handle it better, but we still had a lot of turnovers.”
Zarian Brown led Paul R. Brown with 12 points and a three-pointer. MyKell McKoy followed with eight points and seven rebounds, while Marvin Lacewell scored six points. The Bulldogs did manage to out-rebound the taller New Life squad by a 30-19 margin.
Paul R. Brown was handed a forfeit loss from Riverside Academy on Tuesday, so the Bulldogs will play next on Tuesday, Jan. 30, against Thomas Academy of Lake Waccamaw in East Arcadia.