Ince scores 38 in Havelock victory

Darrien Ince made 10 3-pointers and scored a career-high 38 points in leading the Havelock Rams boys basketball team to a 96-80 victory over South Central Friday night at Havelock High.

Ince missed his first 3-point attempt of the night but then followed with back-to-back treys in the opening minutes of the first quarter.

"The basket looked big and the ball looked small," Ince said. "My teammates said if I got the hot hand to shoot it, and that's what I did. My teammates did a good job of getting me the ball."

The senior hit three 3-pointers in the first quarter as the Rams battled to a 20-20 tie. He then got even hotter in the second quarter, hitting three more triples and adding more conventional 2-point baskets.

He finished the first half with 22 points as the Rams built a 47-36 lead.

Ince started the third quarter with another 3-pointer as Havelock increased its lead to 68-55 after the three periods. He then sparked a 9-3 Ram run to start the fourth with a 3-pointer, prompting South Central to call a time-out.

But the pause did nothing to slow Ince, who nailed another 3-pointer coming out of the break as the Rams began to pull away.

Havelock got to the 96-point mark with just about a minute to play and had a few possessions to try to reach the 100-point mark. However, the Rams turned the ball over twice and missed a basket.

With the victory, Havelock improves to 13-8 overall and 6-6 in the Coastal Conference.

The Havelock girls fell to South Central 78-52.

Havelock next plays Washington Tuesday at Washington with the junior varsity boys game beginning at 4:30 p.m., the girls varsity at 6 p.m. and the boys varsity at 7:30 p.m.