BENSON - The trap was the thing Tuesday night for Clayton's basketball squads. The Comets swept rival West Johnston in boys and girls action, using great defensive efforts against the Wildcats.

Clayton's girls outscored the Wildcats 15-3 in the third quarter en route to a 46-38 win, while the Comet boys led by 34 at the half of a 64-32 victory.

Offensively, Clayton's boys hit 13 3-pointers on the night, including consecutive 3s to start the game and a stretch of three straight 3-balls that blew the Wildcats' fur off in the second quarter.

On the defensive end, nothing came easy for West Johnston. The Wildcats were unable to get the ball inside to benefit from their size advantage and couldn't get away from the Comets' pressure to create open looks on the outside.

It was the second straight stingy outing for Clayton defensively. In their past two games, the Comets (8-2 overall, 3-1 Greater Neuse River 4-A Conference) have held their opponents to just 32 points. That's an average of just a point a minute for Holly Springs (which Clayton beat 37-32 last Friday) and West (3-8, 2-2).

"That's shades of what we did last year," said Clayton boys coach Denny Medlin of his team's defensive effort. "We're playing up tempo games but we're getting better defensively. When we're able to trap and create things with our defense, we're a much better team."

The Comets rode their solid defense into the round of 16 in the state playoffs last season. On the offensive end, Clayton showcased much better production and balance than it did in Friday's game.

Clayton hit nine 3-pointers in the opening half and turned the ball over just five times in the opening 16 minutes of play.

"What really helped us tonight is that we moved Donte [Tabron] back to the win," Medlin said. "We really wanted to see if he could run the point but we weren't scoring as well as we can. So we moved Shaun Clayton into the starting lineup at point guard.

"And we worked the ball better than we have been. We were just passing so much better and I really felt like all 11 guys contributed to our win tonight."

All 11 Comets scored against the Wildcats. Adam Parrish had 12 to take high-scorer honors. Non-starters Tivaq Jones added 11 and Quantee Lee pitched in eight. Tabron finished with nine points.

Ben Jacobs led the Wildcats with 10 points.

The Comet girls (6-3 overall, 2-2 conference) took control of the game with their 1-2-2 trapping defense in the third quarter. Clayton led just 19-17 at the half but held West Johnston (1-3 conference) without a field goal - and to just three points - in the third quarter.

The spurt gave the Comets a 34-20 lead entering the final eight minutes of play.

"We've been right there in every game," said West girls coach Kris Bennett. "Right now, we just lack the mental focus to play for 32 solid minutes. We played a great fourth quarter tonight and a good first half.

"But we let ourselves down in the third quarter."

Clayton's Latesha Williams had five of her game-high 15 points in the third quarter. She pushed the lead to 32-19 with a steal near midcourt that preceded a driving layup that started a three-point play.

"We're still dealing with young girls getting experience," said Clayton girls coach Marlon Lee. "We got the tempo to where we wanted it and started to take advantage of the pace with our traps and everything."

The Wildcats scored on three of their first four possessions of the fourth quarter to pull within 34-24 with 6:40 to play but buckets by Marnikka Young (12 points on the night) and Williams quickly pushed the lead back to 12 points before the five-minute mark.

"You just want to put yourself in a position to win it in the fourth quarter," Lee said. "We were able to get them to play our pace."

Jessica Parker and Kassidy Burr had nine points apiece to pace the West Johnston scoring attack.

The Comets wrap up their pre-Christmas schedule Thursday night at home against East Wake, while West Johnston visits Knightdale on Friday night.

Boys Game

Clayton 64, West Johnston 32

CLY 17 29 8 10 - 64

WJO 4 8 11 9 - 32

CLY—A.Parrish 12, T.Jones 11, D.Tabron 9, Q.Lee 8, M.Jones 6, B.McPhatter 4, S.Clayton 4, A.Ray 3, K.Stancil 3, J.Getty 2, T.Williams 2; WJO—B.Jacobs 10, S.Dance 5, S.Johnson 4, C.Brownfield 4, M.Taylor 3, M.Parker 3, J.Shackley 2, D.Anderson 1.

Girls Game

Clayton 46, West Johnston 38

CLY 3 15 15 13 - 46

WJO 10 7 3 18 - 38

CLY—L.Williams 15, M.Young 12, T.Richardson 6, S.Hall 6, K.Mosley 4, S.Moore 3; WJO—J.Parker 9, K.Burr 9, T.Thompson 7, T.Dixon 4, K.Gavitt 4, M.Tew 2, M.Barton 1.