Instead, the Warriors (1-2) failed to protect the ball in the final quarter and gave up an 8-point lead Stinson said his players should have expanded on.

The Warriors had a chance to tie with a final possession with 11 seconds left in the game and no timeouts. Rob Tomes took the inbound pass and took a shot from behind the arc, but missed his mark.

"We've just got to do a better job on offense taking care of the ball," Stinson said. "We had a chance to win it and gave it away. Aside from poor rebounding in the first half and not protecting the ball in the fourth quarter we actually outplayed them."

Hillside rallied from a 36-32 third-quarter deficit to outscore the Warriors 17-10 in the final period for the win.

The two teams played pretty evenly in the first half, with the Warriors leading 27-24 at the break. East Wake's man-to-man defense wasn't paying off, but Stinson was quick to identify the problem and make adjustments.

"They rebounded a little better in the zone, but we still needed to be more active," Stinson said. "They were standing around instead of actually moving when the ball was moving."

Stinson also pointed to shortfalls in fundamentals like boxing out and rebounding as problems for his team that helped the Hornets' late run.

The Warriors dribbled too much, according to their coach, and rushed into Hillside's pressure, forcing poor shot choice.

Despite the loss, Stinson still thinks his team has progressed through each of the first three games of the season.

Chris Pernell led East Wake's scoring attack with 12 points, followed by Shaquille Leach with 10, Josh Siler with 9, Rob Tomes with 7, Donal Gooch with 4, and DaQuan Wooten and Zavier Strickland with 2 points each.

Darian Allen was Hillside's leading scorer with 14 points, followed by DeShon Self with 8, Isaiah McNealy with 7, Dyron Jones with 6, Ty'Quon Reid with 4, Austin Teal and Josh McNeil with 3 points each, and D'Ontray Johnson and Trevion Thompson with 2 points each.