Caissons overpower Southern Tech, spoil Ross’ homecoming

The Fishburne postgraduate basketball team continued its winning ways Saturday afternoon, mixing some red-hot shooting with suffocating defense to dismantle Southern Tech of Charlotte, 102-60.

The Caissons hit 13 three-pointers and held the Wildcat offense in check with a 1-2-2 zone defense that spoiled the homecoming of former Waynesboro Little Giant Jordan Ross, who started at shooting guard for Southern Tech.

“It definitely wasn’t the outcome that I had hoped for, but it was nice to play back in Waynesboro in front of my family and friends,” Ross said. “I had this one circled on my calendar since the beginning of the season.”

It looked as if head coach Ed Huckaby and the Caissons had this game circled as well, as Fishburne jumped out to a big lead early behind the hot shooting of Arthur Bell.

“We played pretty well today, our zone limited their looks inside and we did a good job on the boards as well,” Huckaby said. “Arthur is a terrific basketball player who can be real tough to stop, when he gets going like he did today.”

Two big dunks by Keon Palmer and Khalil Murphy got the Caissons an early 12-5 lead, and in the next six minutes Bell would hit four 3s to give Fishburne a 27-15 lead with 11 minutes to play in the first half.

Quincy Taylor found Donte Morales above the rim for a spectacular jam, and after another 3 from Bell, Marquise Barfield hit back-to-back triples that pushed the Caisson lead to 25 at the intermission, 53-28.

“We worked real hard in practice to get ready for this game and the coaches really had us prepared,” said Bell, who finished with six 3s and 24 points. “We do a lot of shooting throughout the week and it really paid off for me today.”

Joel Brokenbrough scored all 12 of his points in the last 20 minutes to keep the rout rolling, as the Caissons reached the century mark to the delight of the cadets in attendance.

Barfield and Palmer added 15 apiece for the Caissons, while Carlton Johnson led the Wildcats with 23.

Coach Huckaby, as always, kept the game in perspective.

“I am happy with our performance today, but I want my guys to work just as hard off the court and to remember how blessed we are to live the lives that we do,” he said. “We need to remember the people of Haiti and what they are going through at this time.”