The first of a full slate of games for Day Five at the City of Palms Classic brings together a pair of out-of-state powers. Greensboro Day fell in the opening game of the event to Calvary Christian out of Fort Lauderdale, then redeemed itself against St. John’s out of the nation’s capital. GSB path to today is a result of first round defeat at the hands of Whitney Young out of Chicago then defeating Isadore Newman out of Louisiana.
The Bengals of Greensboro Day got out of the gate quickly, leading 8-0 with just over three minutes gone in the quarter as 6’5 senior Michael Zanoni hit a three, 6’4 junior Jaydon Young connected on a long two and Zanoni converted a three point play. GSB’s 6’8 junior Mackenie Mgbako got the Knights on the board with a stick-back. Julius Reese, a 6’4 junior, made one of two free throws for the Bengals but Mgbako got the score to 9-4 after connecting on a mid-range jumper. However, that would be the last points of the quarter for the Knights as Greensboro day scored the final three points of the period to make the score 12-4 in favor of the Bengals.
Those final three points of the first quarter were just the start of a 12-0 run by Greensboro Day and with 5:42 left in the second period, the Bengals led 21-4. GSB finally broke the drought with a pair of free throws by Mgbako and then 6’0 freshman Peter Mauro scored on the break. Once again, four points was all GSB could muster in the second period. Greensboro Day finished the period off with a 10-0 run to make the score 31-8 at the break.
Greensboro Day extended their lead early in the third, scoring the first four points of the quarter. A baseline drive and score by GSB’s Mauro got the Knights on the board, but the Bengals knocked down six straight free throws to make the score 41-10 with 3:15 to play in the period and a running clock looked eminent. At that point, GSB got things figured out. The finished the period on a 13-7 run, seven of those by Mgbako, to get within 48-23 going into the final period.
The Knights made the early part of the fourth quarter interesting as they whittled the lead down to 50-31 with just over six minutes to play thanks to a pair of threes from 6’2 senior Denver Anglin and a floater from Mgbako. However, that was a close as they would get. GSB made a living at the free throw line, connecting on ten consecutive to make the score 62-36 with just over three minutes to play. Both teams put their reserves in, and Greensboro Day extended their margin to win by a final score of 69-42.
Greensboro Day was led by Young with 18 points while Graves contributed 14 points and Zanoni added 13 points.
Gil St. Bernards was paced by 15 points from Mgbako and 10 points from Anglin.