Kinston’s Samantha Lee drives to the basket during Tuesday’s game. Photo by William ‘Bud’ Hardy / Neuse News

The Kinston girls’ basketball team avenged its only regular season loss from last year’s 29-2 campaign with a 54-27 rout of West Carteret in the 2018-19 season-opener for both squads on Tuesday.

“I think our girls were overconfident last year,” Kinston coach Chris Bradshaw said. “We told our team this couldn’t happen again.”

In a game in which they never trailed, the Vikings (1-0) jumped out to a 13-5 lead after one quarter, extended the lead to 28-9 at halftime and led 38-19 after three quarters.

Junior guard/forward Taliyah Jones came off the bench to lead the Vikings with 10 points, including nine in the fourth quarter. Anzaryia Cobb and Zykia Andrews had nine each for Kinston, Samantha Lee and Michyla Dove had eight points apiece and Sheriece Jones added seven in Kinston’s balanced scoring effort.

“The biggest thing about our team this year is the depth,” Bradshaw said. “Most teams we play, they may have one or two good players. All 12 girls on our team are capable of being the leading scorer; the balanced effort we have is our biggest attribute.”

West Carteret (0-1), which plays in the Coastal 3A conference, was led in scoring by junior guard Mackenzie Reed, who scored eight of her 12 points in the fourth quarter.

There’s a lot of pressure on Kinston, which finished as the 2A Eastern Regional runners-up last year and is considered one of the favorites to win a state title this season.

Bradshaw said his Vikings relish that role.

“Basketball is basketball; if you prepare well and your team works hard, you’re going to win basketball games,” he said. “I tell our girls to never look at the scoreboard – if they play hard for the whole 32 minutes, they’ll be fine.”

WC      5          4          10        8          --         27

K          13        15        10        16        --         54

Kinston (54): Taliyah Jones 10, Cobb 9, Andrews 9, Lee 8, Dove 8, S. Jones 7, Kittrell 2, Sutton 1. West Carteret (27): Mackenzie Reed 12, Hester 6, Kemp 4, Montgomery 4, Mitchell 1