GARNER - Tianna Knuckles has become one of the top 3-point threats in the Greater Neuse River 4-A, and she used the long ball to make the home team pay Tuesday night.

The junior guard canned four 3-pointers, tying teammate Shakerrya Morrison for top scoring honors with 17 as East Wake thrashed Garner 56-39.

The win improved Toni Vick’s Warriors to 5-2 overall and 2-0 in conference play.

Kiyana Stokes’ 10 points led Garner, which fell to 2-4 and 0-2.

“We played together as a team and made some good stops,” Vick said. “I thought we rebounded well tonight. The main thing we’re working on is trying to get better on defense. We’ve been focusing on it a lot in practice and I thought it helped us tonight. The girls worked hard.”

East Wake took the lead at 7-5 on a Morrison jumper with 5:42 left in the first quarter and increased it at a steady pace for the next 20 minutes.

“This one was tough,” veteran Garner coach Hardrick Mays said. “We didn’t turn the ball over as much as we have been, but we’ve got to give better effort. It looks like we work harder in practice than we do in games. We just dug a hole and couldn’t get out of it.”

The Warriors led 32-21 at halftime and 47-29 after three periods, taking their largest lead on a Morrison layup that made it 56-34 with 4:29 remaining before the Trojans scored the game’s final five points.

“I think we played good defense tonight,” Morrison said. “I knew Garner was going to be tough. They’re a lot stronger offensive team than they were last year.”

Knuckles had all of East Wake’s 3-pointers, while the Trojans got two from Edris Lucas and one apiece from Kelsey Bryan and Jakiya Davis.

“I liked our hustle and aggressiveness,” Knuckles said. “In the beginning it was kind of rough, but we stepped it up. We have more speed and skill than last year and things are going pretty well.”

Stokes said the Trojans need to play with more cohesiveness.

“We didn’t play well tonight,” Stokes said. “We need to step it up and play as a team and work harder. I thought we hung our heads when we got behind.”