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LANDIS — As the final buzzer sounded, Maurice Torrence ripped off his jersey top and took off for the locker room.
He nearly made it out the door before the emotion of the moment subsided and reality returned.
He still had to go congratulate the winners.
“We just had some letdowns,” Torrence said. “We had this game won. It wasn’t the refs’ fault or anybody else’s fault. It was our fault. The game was over.”
Torrence’s ending and the real one differed greatly — North Rowan, which struggled from the opening tip, rallied for a 73-71 overtime victory at South’s gym, where the Raiders were 5-0 before Friday night’s loss.
South’s first home defeat dropped its record to 5-5 overall. The Cavs, who won a nonconference game for the third straight night, improved to 6-0 for the year.
“Like we needed an overtime on top of this week,” said a laughing coach Kelly Everhart, whose team beat East Rowan on Wednesday and topped West Rowan by four points Thursday night. “We started the game totally flat offensively, but I told the kids that from 16-, 17- and 18-year-olds, I would not accept fatigue as an excuse.”
North’s energy level increased dramatically in the second half and overtime. Inside powers Bryan McCullough and Marcus Lawing combined for 28 points in the final three periods, including all six points in the overtime.
And when Raider Doug Daugherty lined up his potential game-winning 3-pointer in the closing seconds with North leading 73-71, Lawing was there to knock the ball away. McCullough came up with it and flung it toward the Cavs’ bucket to kill the clock.
“I figured they were going to run a play for one of their 3-point shooters off a screen,” Everhart explained. “I said, ‘Whatever you do, don’t go flying at him. No fouls. If he makes it, he makes it.’ Lawing did a super job.”
McCullough and Lawing had just 10 points at halftime, which saw South leading 32-23. The Raiders trailed 11-8 late in the first quarter before embarking on an 18-4 run over the next 5:36.
Marquette Diggs came off the bench and sparked South with seven straight points before Daugherty extended the run with a 3-pointer and two layups.
Most of the Raider points came in transition — North’s strong suit — thanks to long rebounds after countless missed jumpers. The Cavs shot 7-for-26 (27 percent).
“We felt like we had a mismatch inside and then we come out launching 3s,” Everhart said. “I was furious. We were short on everything. We had no legs under us.”
Everhart’s anger was tempered by the fact that, as poorly as North had played and as well as South had played, the lead stayed in single digits.
“That’s exactly what we said,” assistant coach Dave Berrier said with a laugh. “We shoot 7-for-26 and we’re only down nine? OK.”
North made a concerted effort to follow its coach’s advice, and as the ball went inside, the shooting lanes opened up from the arc. Dre Byrd and Chris Phillips, each with seven points in the quarter, hit 3-pointers to narrow the South lead, but the Raiders answered with bombs from Scott Beck and Daugherty.
Torrence and Tore’ Girty scored in the paint and despite all of North’s work, the lead stayed at nine points with 2:30 remaining in the third.
Then, what Everhart called his team’s “second wind” hit.
The full-court pressure suddenly rattled South, which committed four costly turnovers in the closing minutes of the quarter. McCullough scored on a layup, Phillips grabbed a steal and fast-break layup and Byrd had a steal and reverse to trim the margin to 47-44.
It was down to 1 entering the fourth after South’s 3-point attempt in the closing seconds got blocked and Byrd streaked the other way for a layup just before the buzzer.
“We got a little bit lazy, sloppy,” South head coach John Davis said. “The press shouldn’t have bothered us, we just made some poor decisions with the ball.”
Torrence, Lawing and McCullough traded hoops in a fourth quarter that actually saw South steal back some of the momentum. Daugherty followed a Torrence score in the low post with a fast-break layup. Torrence scored again to make it 57-52 with 3:20 to go.
But Lawing answered with three straight hoops to trim the lead back to one point. The South lead stood at 67-65 with 40 seconds to go when Byrd raced off for a coast-to-coast layup to tie.
Ricky Childers hit two free throws with 21 seconds left before McCullough connected in the lane to make it 67-all. Phillips stole South’s shot at a win with a great defensive play on the press, but McCullough missed a game-winning 3 to bring about the overtime.
A Childers layup gave South its final points with 2:20 to play in the extra period, and four turnovers and six North points from McCullough and Lawing ended it.
“We didn’t double down like we did in the first half and let them get back in the game,” Davis said. “Mo (Torrence) is expecting help and Lawing just makes an easy roll to the basket. The guards and forwards have got to come down and help out. In the first half, we did a great job of that, forced them to kick out and they missed some shots.”
NORTH ROWAN (73) — McCullough 24, Lawing 14, Byrd 13, Phillips 12, Reddick 5, House 2, Bates 2, Witherspoon 1, Hosch, Peoples, Davis.
SOUTH ROWAN (71)— Torrence 19, Daugherty 18, Diggs 9, Girty 9, Childers 7, Beck 5, Beck 2, Patterson 2, Propst, Hornbeak, Mack.
North Rowan 11 12 23 21 6 — 73
South Rowan 16 16 15 20 4 — 71
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