TARBORO — KINSTON – Tarboro's Vikings were riding a two-game winning streak going into Friday's Eastern Plains Conference tournament championship game and had momentum on their side.

But momentum is a fickle thing and, just as soon as it makes its way to one team's bench, it can leave and switch jerseys.

And that's what happened here despite the team having been being fired up during pre-game warmups and having all appearances of being ready to play.

Tarboro reached the championship game by beating both the No. 2 and No. 3 seeds in the tournament to get the finals spot opposite Kinston's version of Vikings.

While it was a given that Kinston would make the state tournament — they are the No. 3 seed — Tarboro's Vikings had to play their way in.

In the end, it was Kinston's residence at the free throw line — where they converted 20 of 33 charity tosses — that provided the final margin in the 79-63 Kinston win.

Kinston converted 28 Tarboro fouls into 20 points while Tarboro managed just eight free throws — making four — from the 14 Kinston fouls.

“I am proud of my guys because they played very hard against a good basketball team,” Tarboro Coach Craig Savage said. “We made a great run in the tournament to get to the championship and we put up a good fight, but just came up a little short. I let the guys know they shouldn't hold their heads down, because we played as hard we could.”

Tarboro came out very aggressive on defense in the first quarter, but couldn't stop highly recruited Josh Dawson. Dawson scored eight first quarter points, mainly because he was left wide open. Tarboro would answer right back. With Kinston ahead 7-3 Tarboro's Bryson Bryant and Chase Johnson both hit back to back baskets to tie the game a 7-7. With 2:56 left in the quarter Kinston's guard Andrew Lopez came into the game and hit two three pointers on consecutive possessions to give Kinston a 13-7 lead and with 2:08 left in the quarter Savage called a timeout.

“I told the guys we had to get out on their shooters,” Savage said. “They were knocking down the threes and we couldn't continue to leave them wide open like that.”

Tarboro came out of the timeout and hit a scoring drought and Kinston went on a 6-0 run to end the first quarter. They led 19-7.

In the second quarter Tarboro was getting frustrated with the officiating, because they weren't getting the same calls on the offensive end as Kinston was getting. Tarboro was charged with eight fouls in the second quarter, but they continued to fight through the situation and stayed in the game. With 5:26 left in the first half Tarboro's Najee Smith and Kelvin Jones both hit back to back threes and then Tommy Purvis scored on a layup and Tarboro trailed 22-18. On the next possession Bryant hit another three, but Lopez answered right back for Kinston and Tarboro trailed 26-20. With 2:08 left in the first half Bryant got a three point play the old fashion way after he was fouled driving to the basket and made the layup. He hit the free throw and Tarboro had cut into the lead and was down 32-28. Kinston closed out the half with a 6-3 run and led 38-31 at halftime.

Tarboro was 6 of 15 from beyond the three point line in the first half.

“I told my guys at halftime just to keep fighting and make smart decisions on the offensive end of the floor,” Savage said. “I let them know that Kinston was getting the calls on their end of the floor and we weren't getting the same calls so we just needed to continue to fight through it and play our game and keep it close.”

Tarboro would cut the lead to five in the first four minutes of the third quarter and trailed 47-42 after Bryant and Jones both hit threes and Jones got a three point play. Savage called a timeout with 4:09 left in the third quarter to slow his guys down.

“I told them to slow it down and go inside to work the ball through Tommy so we could get some good looks at the basket,” Savage said. “We just weren't getting good looks at the basket.”

Johnson and Epps both hit threes after the timeout and Tarboro trailed 56-48 after three quarters.

Kinston started the fourth quarter on a 9-2 run and with 5:50 left in the game Savage took another timeout.

“I told the guys during the timeout not to give up and the game wasn't over just yet,” Savage said. “I told my guys to keep scrapping and play aggressive defense and not to give up because you never know what could happen.”

Tarboro would try to play catch up the rest of the quarter, but Kinston would answer each time Tarboro would score.

“Tarboro has a very talented basketball team and I give them credit for fighting through the tournament like they did,” Kinston head coach Wes Gulledge said. “They played us very tough and we had to be on our A game to pull this win out against them.”

Kinston took 19 free throw attempts in the second half and Tarboro took four. Tarboro was called for 18 fouls in the second half and Kinston was called for eight. There were several controversial calls during the second half that went Kinston's way each time. Tarboro never caught a break during the game with the officiating.

“It is tough when you get fouls called on you like we did tonight but it wasn't getting called on the other end,” Savage said. “I talked to the referees about fouls. It is tough when the fouls aren't being called both ways and having to deal with that. It is tough to win at a place like this and I'm not blaming everything on the officiating but it didn't help the fact of the matter. We could've did some things better then what we did but you learn.”

Tarboro was led offensively by Bryant with 18 points and Jones added 17. Purvis chipped in 12 and grabbed 12 rebounds, while Johnson scored eight.

Tarboro is losing eight players due to graduation and will only return two varsity players.

“Overall I think we had a good season but there were a lot of ups and downs,” Savage said. “We battled hard and at the end of the season we came on strong and showed what kind of team we really were. We proved to people that we were capable of beating the top teams in the conference and were able to play with everyone in the conference.”