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KANNAPOLIS —It may still seem like football season for most of North Rowan’s basketball players, but not for Bryan McCullough.
The 6-6 senior center, who doesn’t play football, scored 23 points and sparked the North boys to a season-opening 65-61 come-from-behind victory over A.L. Brown’s Wonders here Friday night.
North’s football season ended the previous Friday in a 39-22 loss to Newton-Conover in the third round of the state 2A playoffs.
“I expected us to be a little rough coming off the football field a week ago,” said North coach Kelly Everhart. “You don’t come out and have your court feel right from the get-go.”
He wasn’t surprised by McCullough’s 10-for-20 field goal shooting with one 3-pointer plus a game-high 16 rebounds, two steals, two blocked shots and two assists. McCullough had 16 of his team’s last 30 points.
“It’s amazing how much further ahead he is than the rest of the guys, simply because he’s been on the basketball court all along while some of the others were on the football field,” said Everhart.
“We’ve still got football legs going. We’ve got to get in basketball shape a little bit more and just have a little bit more killer instinct and we’ll be all right,” said McCullough.
The Wonders led by seven points twice in the third quarter before the Cavaliers made their move.
“It woke us up a little bit,” said McCullough. “We’re trying to have not a hype kind of attitude we had last year, because we didn’t accomplish our goals like we wanted to. We’re just going to take it game by game instead of looking ahead.”
The Cavaliers won the Central Carolina Conference championship last year and went 20-5 overall, but lost out to Statesville in the sectional finals.
Everhart said, “I think in another week you will see the others get in the flow of basketball and you’ll see a big difference.”
Chris Phillips was a wide receiver in football, but he did well in the one-week transition, scoring a career-high 17 points on 6-for-9 field goal shooting with a 3-pointer. Another wide receiver, Marcus Reddick, made three 3s and scored 13 points.
Guard Aundrae Allison kept the Wonders ahead most of three quarters and wound up with a career-high 30 points on 13-for-23 field goal shooting with two 3-pointers. Reserve Brandon Thomas made four 3s off the bench and scored 16, while point guard Jason Brown added 12 points with one 3.
“They’ve got some guys that could stand out in the parking lot and shoot it in, I believe,” said Everhart. “It just amazed me. A lot of times I thought we had pretty good defense, had a hand in their face and they were still knocking them in.”
A.L. Brown coach Shelwyn Klutz said on Thursday after an 81-69 season-opening victory over big rival South Rowan that he was confident in his team’s outside shooting ability. His Wonders have made eight 3-pointers each night.
Klutz isn’t surprised that Aundrae Allison, a 6-1 junior, has turned in 17- and 30-point nights back to back as a returning starter.
“I think Aundrae probably grew up tonight.He played big-time basketball tonight. I’m proud of him. He has to be more consistent doing that every night,” said the Wonders’ coach.
“If he gets his mind on it, he can really put some points on the board. He did a good job tonight of running the team and made some big shots down the clutch. ... The sky’s the limit for Aundrae. I’ve told him for the last two years, if he wants to get to the next level, he can do that. He just has to get it in his mind to continue to work hard and get better,” said Klutz.
His Wonders, after leading by seven twice in the third quarter, then trailing briefly early in the fourth quarter, made a valiant effort to pull off an upset. North led 57-56 after a McCullough basket, but Brown’s driving layup and Allison’s three-point play put A.L. Brown back on top by four at 61-57 with 4:05 to play. However, the incorrect scoreboard read 62-57 because an extra point had been credited to the Wonders.
North battled back on McCullough’s basket, three free throws by Dre Byrd, another McCullough field goal off an offensive rebound and a free throw by Phillips, outscoring the Wonders 8-0 in the final four minutes. McCullough wrapped it up by blocking a Thomas 3-pointer in the closing seconds.
Everhart, with his team having only a few practices, decided not to use a fullcourt pressing defense until the second half.
“I wanted to make sure we had enough legs to get through the night, being the first time out,” explained Everhart. “After halftime, I definitely think the press made a big difference.”
The Wonders had 17 turnovers — 12 in the second half and eight in the crucial fourth quarter.
“Their pressure down at the end cause us to kind of get out of our offense. It seemed like we couldn’t get a good shot going down the stretch,” said Klutz. “The same thing happened last night (against South Rowan) against pressure. We’ve just to do a better job of handling the pressure down the stretch and making good decisions with the basketball.”
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NOTES: North went 22-for-57 (38.6 percent) on field goals and 16-for-26 at the foul line, while the Wonders were 24-for-67 (35.8 percent) from the floor and 5-for-7 on free throws. ... Michael Blakeney had 13 rebounds as the Wonders matched North 37-37 on the boards. ... North had 11 turnovers.
NORTH ROWAN (65) — Lawing 2, Reddick 13, McCullough 23, Byrd 5, Phillips 17, Hosch 2, Peoples, Witherspoon 3, Bates, House.
A.L. BROWN (61) — Blakeney 3, Robinson, Barrier, A. Allison 30, Brown 12, T. Allison, Thomas 16, Abercrombie, Blackmon, Caldwell.
North Rowan 16 12 23 14 — 65
A.L. Brown 14 17 21 9 — 61
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