Central varsity boys lose to Dukes on hardwood

Published 10:36 pm Friday, February 3, 2017

The Central High School varsity boys basketball team fell 57-47 in a competitive road game Friday night against Cumberland High School.

“We had to play back-to-back nights on the road,” Chargers Head Coach Mike McGrath said. “We played a whole lot better ballgame last night at Amelia against the first-place team than we did tonight. I don’t think we had as much energy tonight.”

Coming off the 71-59 Thursday loss at Amelia County High School, Central put together a decent first half Friday, trailing only 14-13 after the first quarter and leading 23-21 at halftime.

“We were able to score in transition,” McGrath said, referring to what accounted for the strong second quarter. “We went (to) man-to-man defense. We kind of frustrated them a little bit.”

However, the Dukes went up 41-38 after the third quarter before pulling away further in the fourth.

Junior guard L.J. Watson led the Chargers with 13 points, while junior forward Darryl Jones added 11.

The loss drops Central to 5-15 on the season.

“But right now, we’re a three seed for the conference tournament,” McGrath said. “We’ve still got two regular season games to play next week.”

The Chargers host Randolph-Henry High School on Monday and Carver College and Career Academy on Thursday. Both games are set for 7 p.m.