Fuquay (5-14, 3-9) put together a complete performance on Thursday night to down Holly Springs 60-41 on the road. The Bengals raced out to a 10-0 lead to open the contest, and calmly made 12 of 14 free throws in the fourth quarter to finish off the Golden Hawks.

Along the way, Keith Watson and Dominique Byrd scored 12 points apiece and Drew Robinson added eight. Fuquay was able to consistently beat the Golden Hawks’ full court pressure for points in the paint and trips to the free throw line. On the other end, the Bengals mixed in 2-3 and 1-3-1 zones to keep Holly Springs off-balance.

Byrd, a 6-6 junior, said Thursday night was about more than just winning a single game.

“We’ve been going harder in practice than we have ever before,” Byrd said. “We’ve been working hard to try to change the way things have been going and try to change the program.”

Fuquay coach Randy Barrow said his team has been on the verge of breaking through with a win like this one, and he was glad to see everything come together for a consistent, game-long performance.

The Bengals have lost five games this year by five points or less.

“The guys are starting to understand their roles, and understand the job that they have to do,” Barrow said. “It comes from challenging each other in practice. After the Panther Creek win in overtime – that just sealed it for us. We knew that we could finally win these games. We’d been playing close and playing close and playing close – then [the players] finally realized that they could win those games.”

Barrow said the team’s confidence is growing and it showed as the Bengals made 22 of 24 free throws for the game and never withered against the Holly Springs pressure.

“We lost the Cary game by one and shot 8-for-23 from the line,” Barrow said. “We’ve struggled from the line all year, and tonight it clicked. They had the confidence to step up and knock those down.”

Holly Springs (6-14, 4-9) closed the gap in the second quarter to make the score 22-15 at halftime, but the Bengals maintained the margin in the third and pulled away in the fourth quarter. Jimmy Evans led the Golden Hawks with 14 points. Quentin Underwood scored nine and LaCurtis Latimore added eight.

Holly Springs, which was once tied for first in the Tri-Nine, has lost its last nine games. It had won the previous match-up with Fuquay 50-43 on Dec. 11.

“Well we started the game off down 10-0,” Holly Springs coach Thurman Jordan said.

“We missed a lot of easy opportunities early on. Our shots weren’t falling and [Fuquay] did a great job executing and scoring baskets. They played smart defense, packing it in and making us hit shots. We just weren’t able to do it to get started. And down the stretch, we got cold again.”