BOYS BASKETBALL 
Leesville Road's Shyheid Petteway (31) drives toward the basket as Jake Lenox gives chase during Thursday's 39-38 win over Wakefield. Petteway scored seven points in the victory.
'Underdog' Pride hand Wolverines first league loss
Although his Leesville Road boys basketball team's eight-point halftime lead over Wakefield Thursday might have been impressive — as well as unexpected — head coach Roderic Brewington knew the contest's conclusion was long from over.
With the sound of Wakefield head coach Pat Kennedy's voice reverberating from a nearby locker room, Brewington implored his troop with two simple goals: maintain their intensity and win the third quarter.
"I told our guys 'I have been watching sports my whole life, you're the underdogs. I've seen it hundreds of times, the underdogs come out flat in the second half and then they lose it,'" instructed the coach. "'You have to meet their intensity.'"
Part two of his instructions were focused strictly on the game's next eight minutes.
Wakefield's Nigel King (left) fights for room against Millbrook's Donzell Hill during Tuesday night's game. Nigel later won the game with a late jumpshot.
King's game-winner pushes Wolverines past Cats Tuesday
Prior to hitting his game-winning jumpshot Tuesday night, which lifted the Wakefield boys basketball team to a 49-47 victory over Millbrook, junior Nigel King unsuccessfully bided his time on the bench.
"He must have tapped me 40 times saying he wanted back into the game," laughed Wakefield assistant coach Dexter Cooley, recalling King's anxiousness.
But once King got his chance, he made the most of it.
As teammate Dominique McDonald in-bounded the ball with 4.4 seconds left in a tied game, King found himself open outside the three-point line. With Millbrook's Shi'Chee Moore swooping in for a steal — which nearly disrupted the play — King gathered himself, and put up a leaning jumper which went cleanly through the basket with less than a second left.
Continued ...
Wakefield's Xavier Saddler-Mee (right) races to the hoop following a steal in the second half of Thursday's win over Sanderson. In the background, teammate Dominique McDonald can be seen cheering Saddler-Mee on.
Saddler-Mee, Wolverines knock off Sanderson in opener
His coach's explanation at halftime made sense to junior Xavier Saddler-Mee during the Wakefield boys basketball team's 64-49 victory over Sanderson Thursday night.
Trailing the Spartans 29-27 at the break, Wolverine head coach Pat Kennedy implored his squad to fight harder, and expend more energy than they showed in a somewhat lethargic first half of their Cap-7 Conference opener.
"Coach told us that if we wanted to win, we have to pick it up and it starts with defense," Saddler-Mee recalled. "And I put it on myself to try and lock down their best player, play him tight and try to deny him the ball, and I was able to get a couple steals. It seemed like they just threw it to me."
In fact, in one 30-second period — stretching from the end of the third and into the fourth quarter — the guard singlehandedly dashed the Spartans' spirits.
Continued ...
GALERRY: Wolverines, Spartans hit the hardwood
Here are a few images we captured at the Wakefield/Sanderson girls and boys basketball games Dec. 10. Click on the picture above to see our photos.
Wakefield junior Xavier Saddler-Mee (24) slips to the basket for two points during the Wolverines' 68-43 victory over Knightdale Monday, Nov. 23.
Wakefield knocks off Knightdale
Wolverines' 8-0 run to close first quarter leads to victory
Although early foul trouble forced starter Maurice Nash — who dropped 30 points in the Wolverines' previous contest — off the floor in the first quarter of Monday's game at Knightdale, the Wakefield boys basketball team didn't lack for firepower.
With Nigel King subbing in Nash's place, the junior torched the Knights' defense for 10 first-quarter points, including back-to-back treys in the final minute of the period, igniting a 8-0 Wakefield run.
After taking a 24-12 lead in the first, the Wolverines never looked back, thumping Knightdale 68-43, and improving its early-season record to 3-0.
For Wakefield head coach Pat Kennedy, King's performance — he finished with 12 points — kick-started a team-wide effort.
GALLERY: Wolverines win
The Wakefield boys basketball team jumped out to a 24-12 first-quarter lead and never looked back Nov. 23, defeating Knightdale 68-43. For photographs of the action, click on the picture above.
VIDEO: Wakefield wrecks Knightdale 68-43
The Wakefield boys basketball team improved to 3-0 this season with a convincing 68-43 victory over Knightdale. To see our highlights, click on the video above. (If video doesn't load, click here.)
Keith Armstrong (42) scored 12 points and dropped in the winning bucket as time expired in Wakefield's 47-45 victory over Clayton Wednesday, Nov. 18.
Armstrong's
last-second shot
seals Wakefield win
Wolverines knock of Clayton
on opening night
Following Keith Armstrong's last-second lay-up to seal the Wakefield boys basketball team's 47-45 win over Clayton Wednesday night, head coach Pat Kennedy explained what got the Wolverines' game-winning play in motion.
And it probably isn't what you think.
After a timeout, Jake Lenox inbounded the ball to point guard Dominique McDonald with 14 seconds remaining. As McDonald pushed the ball up-court, Lenox, who raced down court, flashed to the top of the key. McDonald proceeded to dribble toward the corner, driving the Comet defense out, setting up Armstrong in the paint for the easy lay-in.
GALLERY: Wakefield wins on Armstrong's lay-in
The Wakefield boys basketball team used all 32 minutes Nov. 18 to knock off Clayton. With no time remaining, senior Keith Armstrong dropped in the winning bucket. For photographs from the game, click on the picture above.
A few days before the Wakefield boys basketball team's season opener against Clayton Wednesday, Nov. 18, senior Keith Armstrong spoke with NorthRaleighSports.com about this year's squad.
Click here to read what Armstrong had to say.