By Peter Vankevich
Ocracoke boys’ varsity Dolphins held off the Cape Hatteras Hurricanes at home Tuesday winning 47-42 in the first of two rounds of the Atlantic 1-A Conference tournament.
The victory will take the Dolphins to the neutral site at First Flight High School in Kill Devil Hills, Dare County, today to battle Bear Grass Charter for the conference tournament championship. Bear Grass won their berth against the Dolphins after beating the Columbia Wildcats 66-45 at Columbia on Tuesday.
The game got off to a quick start with sophomore Gavin Elicker scoring the first seven points and the team led by 9-0 and never trailed, though the Hurricanes came close several times. He finished with 18. Rahnier Lyons, the Dolphins’ center, had 14 points. Dylan Waters was high scorer for the Hurricanes with 11 points.
“We played real well,” said coach Frank Moore. “I thought the first half we played exceptionally well. I thought third quarter was so-so. And the fourth quarter we made a few mistakes that kept them in the game. But other than that, I’m very pleased for our kids.”
The Dolphins are 7-1 in the conferences and 13-8 overall for the season. The Bears are 6-3 in the conference and 13-9 for the season.
Ocracoke won two match ups this season against the Bears, 44-33 at Bear Grass on Feb. 9 and at home 47-37 on Jan. 25.
For the girls varsity Atlantic conference championship, Cape Hatteras will take on Bear Grass, also today at First Flight High School. The Lady Hurricanes easily beat Mattamuskeet and the Lady Bears held off the Lady Wildcats to make it to the finals.
WOVV, Ocracoke’s community radio station, will broadcast both games, 90.1 FM on island and online, wovv.rocks and wovv.org.
The ladies tip-off will be 6 pm and the boys game at 7:30 pm. Doors at the First Flight gym open at 5:30 pm.
