SPENCER— A game featuring quick guards and great shooting guards turned on the inside play of a pair of big forwards.

Cavaliers Marcus Lawing and Bryan McCullough combined for 44 points and 33 rebounds as NorthRowan overpowered South for an 82-63 win Tuesday night.

Chris Phillips and Marcus Reddick joined North in double-figure scoring, while John Davis’ Raiders got 21 points from Doug Daugherty and 19 apiece from Scott Beck and Maurice Torrence.

“We needed a fourth,”Davis said simply. He got just four points out of the eight other Raiders who played.

“They got a lot of putbacks inside. We didn’t do a good job of helping,”Davis said. “It was a physical ball game, and you’ve got to fight for your position and hold it.”

South (2-4) tried to minimize the impact of the Cavs’ post players with a run-and-gun attack. That’s the sort of game plan that generally keeps teams even with North (2-0) for a while before Kelly Everhart’s team kicks it up to another gear to pull away.

“I was very surprised when they came out running up and down the court,”Everhart said. “I sighed a little bit because it was going to be the type game we like to play.”

The Raiders got off to a great start, limiting their turnovers and hitting half their shots in the first quarter to trail only 19-15 after the first quarter. Even bigger, North point guard Dre Byrd was on the bench with two fouls, which affected the Cavs’ full-court pressure.

That led to plenty of easy chances to South. Daugherty connected on a pair of layups and a long jumper and Torrence got a layup against the press to cut the Cav lead to 29-27. A Reddick 3-pointer and Lawing post layup stretched the advantage to 40-31 at halftime, but the Cavs still had some work to do.

“We knew they could shoot, especially Scott andDoug,”Lawing said. “We knew we had to play tougher defense on a team like that because if they’re shooting good, they can always win.”

North dropped the press in the third quarter to concentrate on half-court defense. The Raiders stayed within striking distance through the third quarter before the Cavs exploded. McCullough stepped outside for a 3-pointer before Chris Phillips grabbed a steal and raced the other way.

Instead of settling for a layup, he skied for a one-hand slam that left the packed North gym in a frenzy. Lawing followed with another 3 and the lead jumped to 19 points.

“That was a big run. We had been hanging around at nine, 10, 12 points,”Davis said. “After that run we were fighting an uphill battle.”

McCullough and Lawing made sure South didn’t rally in the fourth quarter, hitting 11 straight points to send the lead as high as 21 points.

“Lawing and McCullough are physical,”Torrence said.“I tried playing physical, maintain position and fight hard.”

Torrence, the 6-foot-3 center, didn’t shy away from the athletic 6-5 McCullough and 6-3 Lawing. Torrence’s 19 points and 14 rebounds often came well above the rim.

“The kid plays hard,”Davis said of Torrence.“Every game he goes out there as an undersized guy inside and plays good post position.”

But he couldn’t take on both of North’s big guns.

“Our size was a big difference from the get-go,”Everhart said. “We made sure we kept a hand in their faces, and it seemed like McCullough and Lawing had 50 rebounds between them.”

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NOTES: South takes on West Rowan tonight while North plays host to A.L. Brown … Byrd, plagued by foul trouble for the second straight game, finished with a flourish, handing out four assists in the fourth quarter. … When Byrd was on the bench, Phillips ran the show. “Chris Phillips can step in and run the point any time,”Everhart said. “We’re very blessed to have this kind of depth

SOUTHROWAN (63) — Daugherty 21, Beck 19, Torrence 19, Childers 2, Mack 2, Propst, Diggs, Kennedy, Girty, Hornbeak, Patterson.

NORTHROWAN (82) — Lawing 24, McCullough 20, Reddick 10, Phillips 13, Byrd 7, Hosch 6, House 2, Peoples, Bates, Witherspoon.

South Rowan 15 16 14 18 — 63

North Rowan 19 21 23 19 — 56