Kinston guard Shamon Wooten (21) drives the lane against Garner’s Asa White in the second half of Saturday’s 86-60 loss. Wooten finished with seven points for the Vikings. Photo by Linda Whittington / Neuse News

By Bryan Hanks

GARNER – Less than 24 hours after the Kinston boys’ basketball team exploded for 101 points in an Eastern Carolina 2A victory against Washington, the Vikings bottomed out in a humbling 86-60 loss at Garner.

Kinston (11-5) committed 20 of its 31 turnovers in the first half to fall behind 49-27 at halftime – and those miscues certainly disappointed Vikings head coach Perry Tyndall.

“When you have 20 turnovers in the first half, when we’re that careless, it’s not good,” Tyndall said. “We just played scared in the first half and I was shocked. You can’t spot a good team 20 turnovers and expect to have a lot of success.

“We just dug too big of a hole tonight.”

The loss came in Saturday’s final game of the HighSchoolOT.com Garner Showcase. The Trojans (8-7) had four players score in double digits, led by junior forward Anthony Daniels, who had 15 of his team-high 17 points in the first half to lead the Trojans.

Senior forward Saiquone Harris had 13 points, junior guard Chris Nobles scored 12 and senior guard Jaylen Andrews added 11 for Garner, who will entertain GRACE Christian Monday at 4 p.m. in the showcase.

The Vikings were paced by sophomore forward Dontrez Styles, who finished with 23 points and 12 rebounds. Junior point guard Isaac Parson was the only other Viking to finish in double-digit scoring with 10 points.

Kinston travels to North Lenoir Tuesday in EC2A play.

“We need to do a better job of taking care of the ball and playing transition defense,” Tyndall said. “We’ve got to play hard all the time and that’ll cure a lot of ills.”