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Long 7- and 8-year olds shoot hoops
BabyTides
#31 Fallon Bond hits 2 of her 10 points against the Blue Devils. The Blue Devils beat the Yellow Jackets 21-10. - photo by Photo by Mike Riddle
The Long County 7- and 8-year-old basketball teams continued to shoot hoops like the big-leaguers Saturday.
In the first game, the North Carolina Blue took on the Duke Blue Devils. The Duke team jumped out on fire and played hard-nosed defense, going in at the half up 13-0.
However in the second half the Blue fought back, nearly matching the Duke team, 6-7, But the Blue Devils got the win 20-6.
The Blue Devils were led in scoring by Matt Strickland who had 11 points and Josh Gordon who put up 9 points.  For the North Carolina team, 21 Garrett Bleyman had 2 points and Christian Bass had 4 points.
In the second contest, the Duke team stayed on the court to take on a tough Yellow Jacket team. In that game, the Duke team went on a 6-0 run to open the game, and went in at the half up 17-4.
Showing no quit, the Yellow Jackets put up six more points in the second half, but lost, 21-10.
In that game Gordon had 10 points, Strickland put up 9, and Bree Strickland added the final 2 points, for the Blue Devil team.  The Yellow Jackets were led by Fallon Bond, who with the support of her team, put up 10 points.
In the third game, the Bulldogs came out to take on the feisty Yellow Jackets. Playing outstanding defense, the Dogs pulled the stinger out of the Yellow Jackets, and went in at the half leading 6-0. However, in the second half, the Yellow Jackets came back hard, but lost the decision 14-6.
Bond put up the 6 points for the Black team, while the Dogs were led in scoring by Aaron Thacker who had 2, Gary Poppell who had 4, and Jamel Sloan who had 8 points.
In the day’s final game, the fierce Bulldogs had the North Carolina Blue to contend with.  In that contest, the Blue went in at the half leading 8-2.  But with a bold comeback by the Dogs, the Blue won the tight game, 10-6.
In that slugfest, the Blue were led in scoring by Deante’ McDuffie who put up 2 points, while teammate Bass added 8 more.  For the Bulldogs, Sloan had 4 points, while fellow pup Poppell added 2.
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