Pam Pack battered by Rams

Published 11:51 pm Friday, January 25, 2019

SNOW HILL — Washington’s Omarion Blount lead all scorers with 25 points, but the Pam Pack came up short away at Greene Central Friday night, falling the conference-leading Rams 91-55.

For the second time this season the Pam Pack (5-10, 1-6 2A Eastern Carolina Conference) saw Greene Central’s (16-5, 9-0 2A ECC) forwards Imajae Dodd and Donte Johnson staring back across the court, and for the second time this season, Washington had no answers to stop the power houses.

Towering over all Washington players, the forwards scored 21 and 16 points, respectively, before being benched once the game hit a running clock two minutes into the fourth quarter. Dodd dunked 12 of his 21 points to electrify the crowd and seemingly answered whenever Washington put points on the board throughout the game. A dunk contest broke out to begin the final quarter, as Dodd and Johnson combined to silence the Pam Pack faithful with three consecutive dunks to reach a running clock.

Pam Pack head coach Lane Raper said his game plan for Washington was to get as many good-look 3-point shots as possible because he knew no paint drives or baseline shots would go in the game. He was right. After Blount made a baseline floater just minutes into the game, the Rams eliminated the baseline for the remainder of the night. Just one shot was attempted in the vicinity, which resulted in one of ten blocks Dodd recorded on the night.

“We came in knowing we were going to be outsized and outmatched, so we tried to work on the outside in,” Raper said. “There was just no way, looking at the tape (from other times played) that we were going to be able to do anything down low. I was hoping I was going to have five guys hot from the outside.”

Washington stuck to its plan and made more 3-pointers, 10, than any other shot on the night. The Pam Pack had nine other shots from inside the arc and the rest coming from the foul-line.

“I’m sure we had more 3-pointers then 2-pointers tonight,” Raper said. “We knew what they were going to give us (outside looks), and we started okay, and then they switched on us and we’d make adjustments and they just had way too much length for us. If we weren’t going to be able to hit from the outside, it was going to be a long night for us.”

Washington will look to end its three-game losing skid on Wednesday at home against North Lenoir.