They don’t ask how, just how many. The Hunt High boys basketball team started slow in the first round of the NCHSAA 3-A playoffs Tuesday night, but finished strong in a 69-56 win over 3-A Quad County Conference foe Smithfield-Selma.

The Warriors (20-2), seeded fourth in the 3-A East Region, got off to a bit of a “sluggish start,” especially for their standards, according to head coach Dwight Taylor. But the team finished strong against the 29-seed Spartans (10-13), outscoring them 24-14 in the fourth quarter and pulling away in the last few minutes of the game.

“We executed better offensively at the end of the ball game,” Taylor said. “We picked up our defense and got some stops. So that was they key in that quarter.”

With Hunt playing its first game since last Wednesday, rust was a factor for the Warriors.

“We were rusty, especially offensively,” Taylor said. “We missed some close shots, missed some free throws I thought we should have made, missed more than we needed to miss in a game like that. So it’s the first round of the playoffs, we survived. We’ll have to play better next time.

Hunt saw four players score in double figures, with Ty’Chaun Clay leading the way with 19. Drew Pittman added 18 points, CJ Joyner tallied 11 and Davon Jones added 10. Jaylen White led the Spartans with 18.

Taylor hopes that, with the first round in the rear view, the Warriors got some of the sloppy play early in the game out of their system for this postseason.

“I’m glad we survived the game,” Taylor said. “We didn’t play well for our standards. I thought we were sluggish, but we buckled down in the fourth quarter, got some stops and executed better. Hopefully that’ll help us in the next round.

This was the third meeting this season between the Warriors and Spartans, both members of the Quad County. Hunt won all three matchups.

“I hate anyone playing anyone three times, especially if we beat them the first two,” Taylor said. “I knew it was going to be a much harder game. But trying to relay it to the kids is different. It’s tough to relay that to them when you know it’s going to be tough. It was a game where we had to learn that we had to buckle down in the fourth quarter to win. That’s what we did.” 

Hunt will host 20-seed Swansboro, which upset No 13 J.H. Rose 66-63 Tuesday night, on Thursday.

“We’re going to focus on us,” Taylor said. “We’ve got to execute better. We’ve got to be a little bit more disciplined. I think we weren’t as disciplined as we needed to be, especially in the first half. We let some open shots get out there. They hit the open shots. They hit nine 3s. That’s too many 3s for us to give up to anyone. So we’re going to do a better job.”

SMITHFIELD-SELMA (56)

White 18, Hinton 10, Altman 10, Watson 10, Murray 8.

HUNT (69)

Clay 19, Pittman 18, Joyner 11, Jones 10, Williams 5, Scott 4, Robinson 2.

Score by quarters:

SSS 14 13 15 14 — 56

Hunt 17 12 16 24 — 69