CHESAPEAKE – Great Bridge rolled out to a 16-4 lead through a quarter and continued on to a 54-50 win over Nansemond River in a match-up between the last two undefeated boys basketball teams in the Southeastern District Tuesday night at Great Bridge.

Great Bridge (7-1, 6-0) took the Warriors (5-1, 5-1) out of their usual game of high-pressure defense and pushing the tempo up as much as possible in holding the Warriors without a point for the first 5:03 of play and without a field goal until the 1:43 mark of the opening quarter. By that time, the Wildcats led 13-4.

The Warriors worked their way back into the game and were within a hoop inside a minute to go in the fourth period. Even while the game became a tight one down the stretch, the Warriors never displayed their usual game on Great Bridge’s home court.

“Basically everything we’ve been doing wrong in games leading up to tonight showed up,” said Nansemond River head coach Ed Young, “and because we weren’t up by 20 or 30 points and we were playing a good team, (Great Bridge) took advantage of our mistakes.”

“We pride ourselves on playing well in big games and we didn’t answer the challenge today and that’s very disappointing,” Young said.

The Warriors clawed back against the Wildcats with six straight points to start the second period. The Warriors looked into the paint for hoops by Michael Copeland and Daniel Wallace.

Great Bridge led 27-20 at halftime and 37-27 in the third period before the Warrior defense held the Wildcats scoreless for the last 3:28 of the quarter.

The Wildcat defensive effort was still there, as it was all night long, so even with Shannon Evans draining a three-pointer just before the third-quarter horn, the Wildcats led 37-33 going to the fourth period.

The Warriors worked the lead down to a bucket a few times in the last period. Great Bridge came up with, practically, a four-point play, scoring an easy lay-up after fooling the Warriors on a inbounds play then taking an unforced River turnover and turning it into a basket a few seconds later for a 48-41 Wildcat advantage with just under three minutes left.

Evans hit a three-pointer, a fadeaway shot from the top of the key, to bring NR within 50-48 with 0:54 left.

The Wildcats made four straight free throws, two on each side of an empty Warrior possession, to seal the victory.

“We took ourselves out of our game with foul trouble, rushing shots, missing easy shots and nobody could stop their penetration,” Young said.

Wallace, a 6-foot-7 sophomore who’s moved into the starting lineup and been a force through NR’s five wins to start the season, fouled out late in the fourth quarter and scored three points. Dontrell Brite, NR’s starting point guard, was limited by foul trouble much of the game and had three points.

Evans led the Warriors with 21 points. John Joyce led NR with eight rebounds.