LANDIS — It had been almost three years since a South Rowan boys basketball team had defeated West Rowan, so the Raiders wanted a little respect.

When Scott Beck banked in an off-balanced shot from the left side of the lane with two seconds to play, the Raiders got that respect from coach Mike Gurley and his previously unbeaten Falcons, who fell in a 62-60 upset at the South gym.

West had defeated the Raiders 92-59 at the West gym on Nov. 21.

“We hope it will bring respectability to South Rowan,” said Beck, the senior guard who scored a game-high 20 points. “Nobody looked at us to beat them at all. We just came out to prove everybody wrong and prove that we are worth playing. ... We hustled so hard. We just deserved to win that game.”

Guard Tore’ Girty, who contributed eight of his 15 points during a fantastic fourth-quarter comeback, echoed his teammate’s thoughts.

“Beating West: It’s great. It’s good just to beat West. They’re always the big school. ... This is a big confidence builder for us,” said the senior.

Coach John Davis’ Raiders improved to 3-4 for the season., West dropped to 4-1.

“John’s team deserved it,” said coach Mike Gurley of West. “I felt like South Rowan wanted it more than we did. Tore’ Girty is a classy young man. To lose a basketball game will never feel good, but the way he played that fourth quarter, he’s got a lot of feel proud of. And Scott Beck rose to the occasion there in the fourth quarter.”

West held a 16-point lead of 30-14 during the second quarter, but South pulled within 37-29 at halftime.

“We knew we had to come out the second half and lift the intensity up after the first half,” said Girty. “We just came out there, got more rebounds, boxed out and were able to capitalize on the other end of the court.”

South’s comeback, however, didn’t start immediately. Center Donte Minter and forward Junior Hairston paced the Falcons to a 51-37 advantage with several minutes left in the third period. South still trailed 53-43 going into the final quarter.

“These guys came in here and they played hard. They were down 10 going into the fourth quarter and they never quit,” said Davis.

West still led 60-54 after a Phillip Williams free throw with 1:48 to play.

The Raiders then outscored the Falcons 8-0 in the final 1:30 to pull off the upset. Beck started the run by driving the base line. Girty came up with a steal off the press and scored after rebounding his own miss. The Raiders got possession again when Williams slid down after catching a pass.

That’s when Gurley called a time out (1:10 to play). When play resumed, South almost lost the ball on a turnover, but eventually got the ball to Girty at the edge of the 3-point line. His 2-point shot swished through the net to tie it up.

“I thought it was a 3, but I’m just thankful the ball went in,” said Girty, whose foot was on the line.

Girty almost stole the ball from the taller Minter before Gurley called another timeout at the 28-second mark.

Williams inbounded to Tim Mauldin, then Hairston wound up with the ball near the corner. He drove the baseline, then attempted to pass off and threw the ball out of bounds, giving South possession again with 16.9 on the clock.

Beck wound up with the ball as seconds ticked away, then dribbled down the left side of the lane, made a spin move, then banked in the winning shot.

“There was only 10 seconds left, so we just spread the court and I took it to the hole. I wasn’t thinking, I was just going with it. I knew it was going in, too,” exclaimed Beck.

Gurley called a timeout with 1.9 seconds left, but Girty intercepted a long pass.

It was the fourth steal of the night for Girty, who also had seven rebounds and an assist.

Davis, whose team was outrebounded 22-13 in the first half, knew his team had to hit the boards in the second half.

“At West they killed us on the inside. We talked about helping on the boards. The first half was the same old story. We talked about holding our position, getting down low, working on those guys and getting them out from up there in the lane,” said the South coach.

West still beat the Raiders 13-5 on the boards in the third quarter, but the smaller Raiders matched West at 7-all in the crucial final eight minutes.

Minter and Williams each scored 14 points for the Falcons, and Williams (nine rebounds), Hairston (nine) and Minter (eight) led the Falcons to a 42-25 rebound edge.

South made up for that by losing the ball only 13 times on turnovers — five in the second half — to West’s 20. The Raiders also shot slightly better from the floor — 41.1 percent to 38.9 percent — and made six 3-pointers to the Falcons’ four.

West’s 6-foot-7 Minter had a solid first three quarters, but sat out a couple of minutes in the fourth period and had only one field goal attempt and one rebound in the quarter.

“I felt like Donte was tired. We wanted to give him a blow. I felt comfortable taking him out to give him a quick rest under the idea that I thought we had some ballhandlers in there,” said Gurley.

“I’m not disappointed in us. It’s a good education,” added the West coach. “We’re going to try to round the wagons around ourselves, and we’re going to do everything in our power to try to get this thing right.”

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NOTES: South hit 23 of 56 field goals to West’s 21-for-54. West had a 14-10 edge at the foul line. ... Doug Daugherty had 10 points for South, including a 3-pointer that pulled his team with five with 2:06 to play. ... West visits Northwest Cabarrus in the South Piedmont Conference on Friday. ... South is idle until next Wednesday.

WEST ROWAN (60) — P. Williams 14, Hairston 5, Minter 14, Avery 8, Everhart 2, Mauldin 5, J. Williams 4, Trosper, Gaither 3, Diggs 2, Goodnight, High 1, Barringer 2, Pritchard.

SOUTH ROWAN (62) — Daugherty 10, Diggs, Torrence 3, Beck 20, Girty 15, Kennedy 2, Childers 5, Hornbeak 2, Patterson 4, Propst, Mack, Willett 1.

West Rowan 19 18 16 7 — 60

South Rowan 9 20 14 19 — 62